It's a Man's War
by Margaux Laurent
Summary: What happens when one girl is posted at Camp Toccoa, follow Rose and her fellow Easy company members from Toccoa to Austria? Will she find love on the way or was it just not meant to be? Eventual Bill Guarnere/OC Disclaimer:I don't own anything only Rose
1. Chapter 1

July-Nov. 1942: Camp Toccoa

Rose was the only girl at Camp Toccoa, she was the girl chosen to see what girls could do on the front line, and she knew her stuff and didn't let Sobel get her down. Sobel looked down on Rose for being a woman in a man's war but she always shot him down when he picked on her.

The men in easy company, to which she was assigned, loved her, her nickname was little girl, standing at only 5"5 where her male counterparts were for the most part much taller. She was described as the sweetheart of the 506th she laughed with the boys and was always there when they didn't think they could do it. She had short wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes, she didn't stand out because most thought of her as pretty but plain, she just had a good personality.

Her best friends in the company were Skip Muck and Donald Malarkey, they laughed together and never went anywhere without them, growing up in Georgia but coming from an English family she had a very strange accent.

"You people are at the position of attention!" He then turned to Perconte, "Private Perconte, have you been blousing your trousers over your boots like a Paratrooper?" Rose had had enough but she had to seethe in silence her hard glare was broken by Perconte replying:

"No sir."

"Then explain the creases at the bottom?"

"No excuse, sir." Perconte says.

"Volunteering for the Airborne is one thing Perconte, but you got a long way, before you can prove you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked."

"Name" Shouted Sobel in Rose's face, he was trying to find a fault Christ I hate that man, thought Rose "Marshall Rosemary. E Sir" She replied in a strong voice she never had her weekend pass because he always managed to revoke it! "Why do you want to be in the Airborne's?" Sobel practically screamed in her face, to which she replied "Because I want to be in the best sir!" she replied tightly"I don't believe you" countered Sobel.

Sobel turned to his men "Due to the infractions and non-committal remarks of these men you are running Currahee, fall out!" Shouted Sobel, then gave the order to fall out. She went to the barracks and changed in to her PT gear she didn't understand why the man had to be a pain in the bum but she was getting pushed out by Lipton "Oi! Little Girl you coming or not" called Skip who was stood with Malarkey! "Yeah give me a second" she replied and ran out of the door.

They were running to the start point where members of Dog Company were hanging and shouted to Easy "While you are gone we will take your girl to the pictures!" to which Leibgott replied "Yeah she could use some female company" to which Rose laughed and looked to see Webster, his eyes flashing with anger and Bill looking pissed off. Rose was very confused she looked to Webster and said "What has got your knickers in a twist?" to which Webster replied "I don't wear knickers and they shouldn't talk like that." Rose was flushed by his concern but replied "It doesn't matter they are just bored, but thanks anyway." Webster smiled at her answer. Rose looked around and remembered the first day she was introduced to Easy Company.

 _She was taken by Colonel Sink, when she walked into the barracks most of the men were wondering what a female was doing there so Sink shouted "Listen up boys, this here is Corporal Rosemary Marshall, she will be the first female Airborne in the world and she will do us damn proud, now I am gonna leave her in your care, good day gentlemen" Rose looked round and nervously made her way over to the empty bed. The man on the bed to her left stood up and said "Well little girl, I am Bill Guarnere, South Philadelphia" she replied promptly "Pleasure meeting you, Rosemary Marshall" he was taken back her accent "Whoa! They never told us a pretty, British Princess was joining us, where you from?" she was taken aback by his brashness "Oh sorry how rude of me, I am from Aldbourne in England but I moved when I was ten to Georgia so here I am, sorry for saying sorry! Ugh! I am so stupid!" Bill just laughed at her "Where did ya get ya manners?" Rose blushed slightly, it would be an understatement to say she wasn't a privileged child, her parents were very posh Edward and Elaine thought that their oldest daughter would be the definition of a lady but it seemed that she just wasn't going to comply. She replied to Bill, "Oh I don't know in a milk carton!"_

 _After her quick meeting with Bill she met Malarkey who she thought was very funny and Webster, she liked Webster a lot because of her love of books and his love of literature. She was yet to meet a man in the company she couldn't get along with. She changed into her PT gear along with the boys but instead of hiding away like most thought she would she just took her clothes off and got changed, she got a few wolf whistles mainly from Perconte, Hoobler, Bill and Smokey. She was changed first so she just sat there and couldn't help but feel smug, most of the boys had toned muscles but Rose, she could happily say she had the best 6 pack although, Webster of all people could rival it, the man was surely was very good looking!_

 _She ran outside with the rest of the men and somehow she managed to be at the front with most people looking at her arse so she just stopped, so did the men and she strutted away leaving them gobsmacked! If her mother saw her now she would be on wood duty for a year, yeah she wasn't cut out to be a lady. She was making her way over to the assault course when she heard an insult being thrown her way by a member of Dog Company, who she had no idea, but she was going to show him what she was made of._

 _They started the assault course she was behind Bill and he was doing well until he tripped at the end causing Rose to go flying, she landed with her arse in his face, she laughed at the predicament when Bill said "If you like me tell me, don't put your ass in my face, although I can't say I mind!" she got to the wall and since most men couldn't actually get over the wall she gave shoulder lifts to the smaller men so they could get better times and twice she had to try before throwing herself up the wall._

Rose was

They reached the bottom of Currahee and started their run, 10 minutes in Sobel was getting on everyone's nerves by making remarks to Rose saying "Who did you sleep with to get here" or "You have legs that rival Rita Heyworth's use them for something apart from after dark activities" but when he grabbed her arm the boys had enough and she could see their anger so to calm them down she started singing to herself then the rest just joined in:

" _We pull upon the risers_

 _We fall upon the grass_

 _We never land upon our feet_

 _We always hit our ass_

 _Hide tidee, Christ almighty_

 _Who the hell are we?_

 _Zim zam, goddamn!_

 _We're Airborne Infantry_ "

Sobel didn't know what to do with the company and just stared on in an astonished silence. Skip kept along with Rose; they continued running and could break apart for a good time, Rose having done track right up until she was 18 was already fit so she just sprinted ahead leaving the boys looking as shocked as when the first time she did it.

She was on 20 minutes when she reached the top she could see the men behind her and running down she encouraged them and they tried just as hard. When she got to camp she took a cold shower and went to go spend her down time with Malarkey and Muck, they were gambling, drinking and smoking all of which she was against so she wandered out side and found Webster they sat talking and they got on to the subject of marriage. Webster looked Rose in the face and asked "Have you ever loved someone?" Rose thought for a moment and said "No, you?" Rose knew that this was a complete lie she had loved someone back at home but he abused her and she snapped and decided to join the army, Webster looked away and said "I did once, I try not to get attached anymore, she turned out to be sleeping with my best friend my experience isn't great." Rose looked shocked, she wouldn't expect anyone to cheat on Webster, and he was good looking, kind, intelligent and had a sense of humour what wasn't there to love.

It was getting late so Rose walked back to the barracks only to see Bill stretched out on her bed, Webster and Malarkey sat on the end of it and Skip sitting on the bed next to hers. When she walked in they could see she had a very confused expression as to why they were there. Bill motioned her over "Lil' girl, come here!" Rose raised her eyebrows sceptically but sat on the floor next to the bed none the less and asked "What are you all doing on my bed and slightly under the influence?" They all looked sheepishly around but Malarkey answered first "We don't like how Sobel taunts you for being a girl" to which Webster chimed in "Sure he makes nasty remarks to us boys but he has never touched us before-"Bill cut him off saying "And we are angry about it". Rose just raised her head defiantly "There is nothing we can do, if he touches me in anyway, I'll drop his arse so off to bed!"

The next morning they had PT so Rose changed into them once again, it seemed yesterday the boys were too busy being preoccupied with running Currahee and teasing dog company to make the usual remarks about her larger assets. Luz, being the cheeky git he is commented "Well well Lil' girl, for someone so short you sure have a nice arse!" to which Malarkey chimed in "And tits" she just groaned when Bill came up beside her and said "Do you reckon that if you had no tits you would fall over backwards or the other way round?" Rose replied I don't think I am at a liberty to comment.

Fort Benning

To say Rose was nervous was an under estimate, she was shitting a house never mind bricks according to Malarkey but since the other boys were nervous she just kept a brave face. Now just across from her she could see Sobel breaking a sweat with nerves, she nudged Sergeant Grant who was next to her and both had stifle their laughter with a cough, they both reddened at Sobel's glare their way.

The man shouted above the noise of the engine "Hook Up, Equipment check. She was tapped on the shoulder by Sobel and shouted "6 okay" and tapped Bill on the shoulder then he did to Grant and so on. She saw that it was her turn at the door and to her surprises all of her fear was taken over by excitement and when it was her turn she launched herself out of the plane, she counted to four and her parachute was up. Bill happened to land near her so when they both packed their gear away she ran up and hugged him he laughed with her and she asked "When can we do it again?"


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I know the boys didn't know they were going to England but for the sake of artistic licence they did. Thank you to all my readers and LostInMiddleEarth for your kind review you made my day, you should read LostInMiddleEarth's stuff, and it's very good.**

Later that night everyone went to the pub to celebrate finally getting their jump wings, and to say she had never been prouder was an understatement! Rose was sat at a table with Bull, Bill, Malarkey, Skip and Talbert when Colonel Sink walked in, everyone snapped attention which Sink responded to "Well at ease, Paratroopers." he says. "Now I want you to know that I'm damn proud of you." He then receives a beer from Sergeant Grant. "Thank you Sergeant, now I want you to have fun, and remember our motto, Currahee!" Rose and the rest of the 506th chanted "Currahee!" back to the Colonel. Rose and the rest of the boys went back to the tables they came from and Bill put his jump wings in the bottom of the glass, he was trying to drink it as fast as possible and have the jump wings in his teeth, Rose, Bull and Skip chanted "1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000" and Bill finished the glass then gave a broad smile with his jump wings between his teeth, he said rather loudly "Hi-Oh Silver!"

It was later on that night when people were starting to get tipsy that Bill asked Rose for a dance, when Jim Dorsey's Blue Champagne came on. They started swaying to the music and when it was a fast bit, Bill spun Rose round and she landed facing Bill when, Sergeant Martin tapped her on the shoulder for the next dance, she danced with Bill, Johnny, Malarkey, Hoobler, Smokey, Luz and Floyd. She was smiling and laughing with her friends when Lieutenant Winters asked her for a dance, she complied and made small talk with him and they found that they actually got on really well when she was stolen away by Nixon, she hadn't ever talked to Nixon but she liked the guy but she didn't like how close he got since he was drunk on VAT 69 whiskey. She had been returned to the bar by Nixon when she started chatting with Bill, he told her "You know Captain Speirs? He hasn't stopped staring at you all night" to which Rose cheekily replied "Well, neither have you" Bill huffed for a while but chuckled about it later on.

Rose was alone thinking, she was running her finger along the top of the glass with a cute expression on her face when a stern Speirs walked her way and asked her to dance. She blushed and took his hand gingerly, the song playing was really slow but she danced with him, he pulled her tightly against his chest and she laid her head on his shoulder when the song finished she was led by Speirs to Bill, Malarkey, Toye and Luz he said "You are lucky men, thank you Miss..." "Marshall" replied Rose to which Speirs nodded and took her hand and kissed the top of it. She sat down smiling shyly but her thoughts were interrupted by Bill looking for reassurance that "Don't leave us for Dog Company, we love you more!" she smiled at their over protectiveness.

She got back to the barracks with the rest of the guys, Rose didn't do alcohol very well so she had to be supported by Webster and Skip she was giggling at everything as soon as she hit the bed she fell asleep only it wasn't her bed. She had fallen asleep on Bill Guarnere's bed so he didn't move the, at this time unconscious, girl he just slept on her bed. He noticed that her bed sheets smelt fresh unlike most of the men's beds; maybe she didn't sweat like they did.

When Rose woke up the next morning she had a banging headache and didn't recognise the bed as hers, it smelt like men but clean, she then realised it smelt of Bill. She immediately got dressed and apologised to Bill over and over again until he pulled her into a tight hug.

1943 Camp Makcall

"We are in a textbook position for an ambush we should stay here" the first lieutenant tried to reason with frantic Captain "No we should move, we aren't supposed to be here, get your troops moving Lieutenant" Sobel replied. Winters got the men on their feet "Move out, Tactical Column" he said in a shout whisper. Rose and the other men had not being out of the trench for a minute when the 'enemy' stood up, the man in charge said to Sobel in a patronizing way "Well done Captain, you have just being killed alongside 95% of your men! Leave three dead on the floor" Sobel turned around angrily "You, you and you" pointing at Hoobler, Perconte and Cobb.

It had being a week since Sobel started getting his company 'killed' in training missions, the worst of it was the fact that he tried to blame Rose for distracting him. According to rumour he stormed into Colonel Sink's office and demanded that she be taken out of the company and the army, Colonel Sink was not impressed, he apparently asked "Are you done? I have other things on my mind. Dismissed" Sobel tried to make her life living hell but somehow when he was near on or off duty the boys managed to distract him from getting to close which Rose pouted at saying "Aww, y'all know that if he tries anything I will be able to just tell him what I think with no repercussions" but the boys defensively said "No Rosie, we aren't taking any chances, you're our little girl!"

Later that week the men and woman had being told that they were shipping out for England, nobody knew where but Rose was really excited to be back on home soil. The boys mainly Bill and Malarkey had questions so she stopped them and gave them an accurate description "The Brits are very judgemental, tea loving, they like small talk, respectable and for England itself it is the best country I love it but I'm from there, the weather isn't great all the time most of the time it is cold but the scenery is amazing."

They boarded the ship heading for England, when they had settled down for a while the boys started talking and someone said "What if they don't take us to England and we got to Africa?" to which Bill replied "My brother's in Africa he says it's hot" Malarkey snorted at this and said "Really? It's hot in Africa?" Rose laughed out loud and Bill told her and Malarkey to "Shut up". Then Bill said "It doesn't matter where we go, since the only guy you can trust is yourself, or the guy next to you." Rose thought those were very wise words but Toye replied "As long as he is a paratrooper!" George Luz clearly wasn't having any of it so he butted in saying "Oh yeah, well what if that paratrooper turns out to be Sobel?" Rose thought that that was very smart coming from Luz, she was actually impressed then Skip says "It's doesn't matter, the Krauts will get him or one of us, if Sobel is next to me I am moving down the line next to Heyliger or Winters." Bill scoffed at this replying "Winters is a good man, I like him. But when the bullets start flyin', I don't think I'd wanna fight with a Quaker." Someone asks "How do you know he is a Quaker?" to which Bill replied "He aint Catholic" Malarkey quipped "Neither is Sobel." Rose's opinion went unheard by everyone but she did comment "What does that have to do with the price of bacon? I'm not Catholic" Guarnere responded to Malarkey saying "Heh. Prick is a son of Abraham" Rose knew that Leibgott was a Jew and winced when he looked around saying "Huh?" Guarnere replying in a matter of fact tone "He is a Jew." Leibgott threw down his cigarette and said "Oh fuck" then he walked over to Bill and said "I'm a Jew." Then Bill made the worst mistake he could and said "Congratulations, get your nose out of my face." Leibgott looked like he was going to turn around then tried to throw a punch at Bill but Bill evaded quickly, suddenly a surge of men tried to break up the fight.

Rose went to go stand to break up the fight with her woman skills but before Malarkey grabbed her arm wanting her to not get involved but she just stood there and shouted "Oi!" at the top of her voice and everyone went quiet, she then put a softer face on saying "Bill come with me, Leibgott you go sit there I want to check your jaw when I have finished on Bill's nose." Bill went to open his mouth in protest but she gave him a silencing glare, she grabbed his hand and led him to a small cool room.

He went to explain himself but she put a finger to his lips and said "I know you didn't mean what you said like that but be careful please, we can't fight anyone when we fight ourselves, you are the best friend I ever had Bill, I am just worried that people start building mistrust. He looked at her with his face in a warm smile "Oh Rosie, I knew you would forgive me but I shouldn't have said it, I know this might shock you into submission but I'm going to apologise, I don't want you getting upset." He turned to leave but she said "Here, let me take a look at that nose" she grabbed his face and started prodding his nose, it wasn't broken but it had been dislocated she said "On the count of three I am going to reset your nose." He replied with "Okay" she put a hand on one side of his face and the other on his nose, she counted "1, 2" then she pushed it back into place, he bit down very hard so he didn't scream, she smiled at him with her innocent blue eyes and said "All better now" then she kissed his cheek.

They walked back through the beds and she nodded towards Bill and leaned against a bunk bed she heard Bill's apology "Err... Joe...Well erm...I am sorry what I said was rude, we good?" Leibgott knew how much pride this hurt so he took it as an apology and gave him a man hug. She walked over to Leibgott and said "Aww, he is sorry you know, he actually seemed upset but don't tell him that" she winked at him then said "Your jaw is fine, you are just going to have a bruise, don't worry the Brit girls love it!"


	3. Chapter 3

AN:I know it is short but this will mark the end of Currahee!

Aldbourne

They had being in Aldbourne a week and Rose was loving seeing the most familiar countryside from her childhood, it was how she remembered it. They were on exercise and Captain Sobel was starting to become a typical stressed woman with PMS. Sobel called out "Malarkey, Luz, take the men, take cover behind those trees." She knew this was her grandma's field and knew how to get out of it, the English did have gates you know! They were all behind the bush in silence until Perconte asked George if he could impersonate Major Horton, then he said perfectly "Does a wild bear crap in the woods son?" Rose let out the most girly of giggles; she surprised Perconte enough to say "The girl knows how to giggle!" Rose groaned she hated giggling. Suddenly Luz let out a shout in Major Horton's voice "Is there a problem Mr. Sobel!?" and signals for them to keep quiet. "Who said that?! Who broke silence?!" Sobel shouted back. "I said what is the goddamn holdup Mr. Sobel!?" "A fence, sir! A barbed wire fence!" Sobel shouts back with a waver in his voice "Now that dog just aint no hunt!" Luz shouted back while everyone stifled their laughter. "Now you cut that fence and get this goddamn platoon on the move!" his face when he said it was enough for Rose to go over the edge in laughter "Yes sir!" Sobel proceeded to cut Mrs. Marshall's fence, when Rose saw this she went ape shit.

Rose turned to Malarkey "Ugh! I can't believe the man cut my Nan's fence!" Sobel heard this and said "Listen here Marshall, I do not care about your grandmother's fence, and I want to get this platoon moving." Rose quieted down but everyone could see she was fuming. They finally reached the road and Sobel shouted cockily "Hi-Oh Silver!" Rose thought to herself 'well there goes the element of surprise.' She then noticed her grandpa with Richard, he calls her out "Well my lass, I always knew you would make something of yourself, come here and give your grandpa some love." She ran up to him and folded him in a huge hug. She promised she would visit later on. Sobel gave her a look of disgust that she would show weakness for her family in front her superior officers.

She was in her barracks when she found out that Dick had requested court martial, Webster had come running in, to say she was mad was a big understatement, there was no point in it, it was just some jealousy that had occurred between Dick and Sobel.

The next day Easy in the mess room found out that Sobel had been transferred and they all celebrated, Dick, now no longer facing court martial was pleased to announce that since Staff Sergeant Harris was transferred out of the regiment Rose would become the new Easy Staff Sergeant. He said "One piece of good news over, we now have another piece of good news, since regretfully Staff Sergeant Harris has been transferred out of the regiment; our new Staff Sergeant is Rosemary." Rose went red out of embarrassment and joy, a shit eating grin spread across her face.

Upottery England 1944

Easy company now had a new member, they all dreaded that he would be a pompous git but he was really nice and instead of frowning upon Rose he respected her and trusted her, they were gambling in the club the night before so this morning second Lieutenant Compton, also known as Buck, was reprimanded as a caution. He made his way over to where everyone was congregating on the airfield and told the men, they just laughed and said that they didn't mind him gambling, someone had to buy the drinks! Buck laughed along with them; he had been accepted really quickly.

They were all packing their stuff into the bags when Joe Toye started listing off everything they needed to carry, Rose didn't know what he was complaining at, he was 6"1 at least and Rose was only 5"5, it felt heavier to her. She felt heavy and tired but she knew she had to make the jump but when Meehan told everyone that it was postponed she was angry for making everyone nervous and tight for no reason, she had at least one more night to study the map of the landings, she was happy about that. They went back to the area they were at before but Sergeant Martin came up to her asking for advice, he said breathlessly "Ma'am, we have a problem, my girl back home, she likes to keep up with everyone's families, she just wrote that Guarnere's brother has being killed in Italy. What do I do?" she thought for a moment and said "If I was you I would tell him."

Since the jump had being postponed the Airborne Infantry were sat watching a film, it was evident that Johnny had swapped jackets with Bill so he could find the letter, Bill folded over in grief and grabbed Rose's hand which rested on his knee. He left the movie and Rose followed him. She told him "I am sorry to hear about your brother" to which he replied "I'm sorry for my ma. He was..." and he just trailed off into a fit of sobs. She grabbed both of Bill's hands and looked him in the face, she broke down in a fit of sobs for him, she buried her face in his neck, and he kissed the top of her head and nuzzled her hair. After a while he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, with all her training, and she put her hands on the small of his back.

It was getting late and both were tired from crying so she grabbed his hand and lead him back to the tent, they were alone and Rose didn't want him to get nightmares about his brother so when he climbed into his bunk Rose joined him, her back was flush against his chest and his arms wrapped around her and his face buried in her hair. When everyone else walked in the men commented about how he couldn't wait to get her but she said "Shut up! His brother just died, now sleep, that's an order." Bill whispered in her ear "I wish that wasn't the reason you were here, good night princess." Rose flipped over to face him and brought him close, he wanted to kiss her, he leaned in but she turned her head away, she wasn't ready for this.


	4. Chapter 4

**Day of Days**

 **AN: This is my favourite episode! Also you guys should read some of Luckynumber28's stuff and LostInMiddleEarth's stuff. Also I do Taekwondo so my pin downs and knife defence came in really handy for this chapter. Here goes...**

 **BTW-Sometimes Winters' doesn't print!**

Winters' screamed over the top of the engine "Hook up" and made the signal for those who couldn't hear. Rose hooked herself on in front of Bill and behind Malarkey. "Check Equipment" shouted Winters again, Bill shouted behind Rose "Eight Okay!" and he tapped me on the shoulder, Rose screamed "Seven Okay" and she tapped Malarkey on the arm. She waited a minute and watched Malarkey jump out of the plane, the light went on and she launched herself out of the plane like at Fort Benning.

Rose counted to four and waited for her parachute to open; she sailed to the ground and packed her equipment away. She noticed that she had landed away from the DZ "Holy mother of Christ where the fuck am I?" She then heard an unfamiliar voice call "So vat is a woman doing out here?" she cursed inwardly she didn't respond just turned around and punched him in the gob but she fell over with him on top of her, he had her pinned to the floor so she wacked him in the gut and threw him off her, he recovered and came at her with a knife, he took the classic ice pick, she was in her element, she stepped outside and guided his hand away from her, before she could do anything her instincts drove in and she shoved the knife straight into his stomach.

About 4 seconds after she killed him a voice from behind the bush called "Flash!" she instinctively replied with "Thunder!" Bill walked out from behind the tree with Malarkey, Toye and Popeye. She had never been so glad to see anyone; she was shaking from her encounter. Bill looked at her and said "I was going to intervene but looks like you had it handled, seeing you do that, I must admit, hurt my pride!" she just laughed and crushed him into a really big hug and gave him a wet kiss on the cheek, he returned this with as much enthusiasm. Despite not knowing Popeye and Toye very well they got the same treatment and Malarkey laughed at them because he thought that he had gotten away from them she laughed and said "Get your arse over here Malarkey!" he also received the treatment the others got.

They got walking alongside the railroad and she was nervous someone else was going to try and do her in with a knife. Rose, despite being strong, had turned a lovely shade of off-white; Bill noticed her discomfort and told her "Don't worry about anything, wild Bill's got ya!" she smiled softly at his protectiveness, some of the colour returned to her cheeks. They had been walking for five minutes when Bill started walking closer to Rose, she looked up at him and he just smiled, about five minutes or more afterwards she noticed that Bill had taken her hand in his, this time she only responded by squeezing his hand.

They suddenly were called out by a familiar voice shouting "Flash!" Bill responded eagerly by whisper shouting "Thunder!" she saw Lipton and Winters, she was so happy to see them she hugged Lipton and to Winters' surprise him as well. They all asked each other if they had weapons, it seemed that most people had lost their weapons on the jump. Rose didn't lose anything on her jump she had all of her weapons at the ready, Winters and Lipton were the only ones without a gun.

They were walking on the train tracks and suddenly Lipton said "There is a bridge up ahead!" One of the guys from the 82nd asked Lipton "how do you know?" To which he replied "They had us studying sand tables, right?" Rose couldn't help but silently chuckle at. Suddenly Hall stopped everyone signalling them to silently creep forward; a German group were coming their way from under a bridge. Dick told them all to move, they all took position over the bridge, Dick raised his hand in signal then BAM! Bill had jumped out with his gun and opened fire against the Germans, after about 15 seconds Rose reached for her grenade and launched it at the cart, the explosion killed all but one German which Guarnere quickly shot down.

Winters was angry with Guarnere, he told him sternly "Next time I tell you to wait Sergeant, wait for my command" Rose could see that Bill was peeved because he replied tightly "Yes Sir" and walked away saying "Quaker." They had been walking for a while and Bill had calmed down dramatically, he was saying to Toye "He tells me off for killing Germans, Jesus Christ, he didn't have a gun!" Toye looked annoyed "He only wanted for you wait for his command, what was he going to do? Shout at them?" Bill walked off to Rose. She looked to his side and said "Hey" he smiled at her; she told him "Whatever is eating at you, I don't mind if you tell me or not, I am here if you need, your brother wouldn't have wanted you to become cut off and distant." Even though her words were kind he was angered by them "How would know what he would have wanted? You never met him, you have a perfect life none of your family are dead!" he spat at her. Rose looked at him in disbelief, she turned and marched from him, her life was far from perfect, even excluding the fact that she was the only female on the front line.

When day broke they came to a farm, Rose looked up and saw that a paratrooper had got caught in a tree and had hung himself by accident. Lipton broke Rose out of her trance by shouting "If you need supplies, now is the best time to get it" he then asked a man, who Rose didn't know if he was okay, he looked really shaken. Malarkey shouted "If there is a Luger I get first dibs, I want one for my kid brother." Rose smiled despite feeling like crap; he was really close to his family. Rose was getting medical supplies because she knew Roe would kill her if she didn't, she also picked up some more ammo.

She was finished looting when Winters came up beside her he asked "You okay you look a bit out of sorts?" Rose smiled at his concern "It doesn't matter but thanks for asking." Dick looked at her and smiled he said "Rose, you are one tough son of a bitch, get that arm looked at" she looked down at her arm, her tiredness must have taken away the pain but there was blood on her uniform, she got hit on the jump, her adrenaline had flushed it from her system to start with. She would get it looked at by Roe when she got to the objective. They walked for another half an hour until they reached the objective, St Mere Eglise.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Sorry, I have suffered from writers block so I might edit this chapter later! Also thanks for the reviews, shout out to my sister DreamGenie98 for being very supportive and motivating and Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar by LuckyNumber28 is a must read, I'm going on Holiday so won't have another update for about 5 days! Sorry...**

"How's the war boys?!" shouted Malarkey to a group of German POWs "Where are you from son ?" and walked in two more steps, one of the POWs said "Eugene, Oregon" this stopped Malarkey in his tracks "You have got to be kidding me, I am from Astoria" the POW said "You don't say" in a dry tone. "What are you doing here, in a Kraut uniform?" Malarkey asked in an excited voice, the man replied dryly "Volksdeutsche" Malarkey looked really confused "Come again?" "My family answered the call that all Aryans should return to the fatherland." Rose just said to Malarkey "See you in a bit" then turned to the POW and said " _Friden_ " (Have peace) to which the POW replied " _Danke, Friden_ " (Thank you, have peace).

As she walked into the base she was pulled into a hug by Buck of all people "Wow, little girl! Oi, boys look what the cat dragged in" suddenly she was crushed into hugs all around her. Leibgott finally gave her a hug and asked her " _Sprichst du deutsch?"_ to which Rose replied _"Ja"_ Leibgott told her "We have to find Winters and tell him we have another translator" she nodded her head and said "I also speak French and a little bit of Spanish" Joe just turned round to look at her "What were you? You know before the war?" she hastily replied "I was a teacher and school nurse" she then just broke down; she hadn't seen her home or her students in three years and she missed it like crazy.

Bill was across the 'street' at base, he was in a meeting with a few of the lads for a mission at Brecourt Manor, some of the men weren't going and neither was Rose. Bill upon hearing that Rose wasn't going had a wave of selfish relief. Bill and Rose weren't talking and Bill he felt guilty for that, if he hadn't snapped at her none of this would have happened, Bill thought to himself 'You should have known this would happen, you are her closest friend, you should have known she was a stubborn as an Ass, you have a lot of apologising to do.' He was broken out of his reverie with Winters saying "So who does that leave?" I raised my hand along with a few other guys "Right I want you to be the main assault team, got it?" "Yes Sir" the men replied in unison. As they were walking out Bill saw Rose, her eyes were puffed up and red. She was smiling at something Nixon had told her, Bill got really mad when Nixon tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and she went bright red. He kissed her on the cheek and she headed for the Aid Station, he noticed some blood on her arm but she was out of range before he could get to her.

The boys were leaving so Rose thought that she should go to the Aid Station to help out, she wasn't an official medic/nurse but she had all the skills for the minor injuries and illnesses working as a School Nurse back home. She walked in saying "Doc, where do you want me, I can do anything small or illness?" Doc scanned her over and said "On that empty bed over there, I'm taking a look at that arm!" Rose looked down at her arm, thinking about it and seeing it made her arm twinge with pain. She walked over to the bed and sat there she was about to jump up and help someone when Roe go to her, apparently it Eugene had said "Don't move, I need to clean it up then bandage it, just change it every 8 hours, for two days." Rose jumped up and said "Over there, you really are unstoppable." She was in the store cupboard sorting out equipment when Popeye was rushed in with a bullet in his derrière. Rose rushed over with Eugene and held his hand while he treated the wound, Rose was subconsciously learning how to treat bullet wounds; find the bullet/Shrapnel, clean the wound, and use sulpha powder, put on a bandage or gauze to apply pressure to reduce bleeding. When Eugene had finished she questioned Popeye "Is everyone okay? We lost anyone? Is..." She trailed off she didn't want to know, not knowing would be best, Popeye replied "Two killed, a few injured." She decided to know "Who was killed?" Popeye replied "Two men not from Easy who tagged along, Hall and..." Rose didn't listen to the rest, he was okay, and she was so relieved.

It was nearing the end of the day when Easy made it back to base, the trucks were filled with men eating but she knew where her boys were. Rose made her way over to the truck, Bill, Buck, Malarkey, Skip and Leibgott were in the truck eating something, she opened the flap and the smell hit her "What the bloody hell is that?" to which Buck replied "No idea Princess, we haven't asked, Malark's making it." She replied "Oh okay" she hopped in and Don farted to which Joe said "Oh Fuck!" he really did have a bad mouth and promptly left.

She took Leibgott's place next to Bill but ignored him pointedly "You got any spare?" she asked to which Malarkey replied "Yeah, give us your bowl" she handed it to him and he filled it up. "How was Brecourt? I patched up Popeye earlier" Bill replied talking for the first time that evening "It was well until the crazy Irish fool Malarkey is decided to run onto the open battlefield because he thought someone had a luger, it ended up being a sight, but they stopped firing because they thought he was a medic then he had to dodge bullets coming back." She was glaring at Malarkey "Don't you dare put yourself in danger again young man, I will be after you otherwise" he hung his head replying "Understood, sorry Ma'am." She smiled and repositioned herself to hear more "Also" chimed in Buck "When we got back Wild Bill got into a little argument with Nixon" Rose jolted up at this point and tightly asked "Why?" with an air of defiance, Bill spoke up again saying "I didn't like the way he was looking at you" Rose thought for a moment _I forgive him but he needs telling,_ "Or is it the fact that you weren't giving me that affection? I don't belong to anyone; I may be getting affection from a few men, but none from the one who matters to me, besides Nixon's married." Buck coughed awkwardly, Malarkey was holding back a laugh and Skip sat there looking anywhere but Rose, Buck then smiled deviously "Who does matter? When I find out, I won't tell but use this information for blackmail and to tease you mercilessly even though I probably already know." Rose went a deep colour of crimson but before she could reply Winters asked "Something die in here?" to which Skip replied "Yeah, Malarkey's ass" this caused laughter from all in the truck except Malarkey. "Any word on Lieutenant Meehan yet." "No, none" Rose didn't like the news; a few men from Easy were still missing. Skip offered Dick some wine but Bill said "Here, the man don't drink" but to everyone's surprise Dick took the bottle and said "It has been a day of firsts don't you think Bill?" Bill nodded and Dick continued "Rose did you get that arm seen to "Yes sir" Dick put his head half out then said "Sergeant, I'm not a Quaker!" this caused everyone to laugh again.

It was later on that night that Bill and Rose were sat in the truck alone; the others were on duty. "Rose, do you forgive me?" Rose looked into his deep eyes, they were her weakness and smiled "Yes, I'm not going to lie, what you said hurt, a lot, I just didn't want to be treat like shit for trying to help, I can't imagine what it must be like, my sisters are recovery nurses in England" Bill smiled in spite of himself "I'm so sorry Rose, I didn't want to hurt you I was just so selfish." Rose looked at him "That may be but it will take a while to be back where we were." Bill looked at her "And where were we? You don't treat me the same as everyone else" she looked away "I was starting to fall for you but I think I made a mistake, I'm going to go night Bill." He looked like he was going to punch something he just looked at her when she left, when she was out of hearing range he said quietly "G'night Princess."


	6. Chapter 6

AN:I am reviewing chapters and planning the story will be MIA for a while sorry and I have GCSE mocks and controlled assessments coming up

Joe Leibgott was showing of his swastika Nazi flag to the rest of the boys. Most of the men had now got souvenirs. Rose was sat on a step next to Bill, the two were on friendly terms but Bill looked heartbroken and to say the least Rose looked worse for wear, she was working early in the morning and late at night just looking for jobs to do, everyone needed help so nobody questioned it, this much was evident due to the bags and dark circle beneath her eyes, she also was very skinny, strong still but skinny. Rose had caught Bill talking to Malarkey about her, apparently he was concerned. He had said to Don "She is getting ill, I'm worried about her" but Buck who was also their just stated in triumph "Ah ha! You do care for her!" Bill scowled and he told Buck of their argument.

They were talking when Shifty, Floyd and Blithe turned up. Rose, despite her strained relationship with Bill, grinned at Bill and led them over to them. Rose hugged Shifty and Floyd before saying a welcome to Blithe, they had never been close but she liked him, she noticed that he looked a little shaken, Rose shrugged it off, it maybe the after effect of missing the DZ by a long way.

Rose followed Blithe to where Perconte and Dukeman were sitting. Perconte greeted Blithe with a "You got any souvenirs?" to which Blithe replied too with a shake of the head "Really Frank? You can't just greet a man you haven't seen for a long time with that!" Perconte just shook his head in response, "Really Princess! Anyway, they are all ticking, unlike their previous owners" showing Blithe an arm full of wrist watches "you got anything good?" Blithe didn't seem to take notice, "We lost anyone?" Rose replied "Tommy Burgess took one in the face. Popeye Wynn got pinked in the behind. They're going to be okay." Blithe smiled at this and shook his head "Can't fault your optimism Princess but that is good news." Perconte after a few moments asked "You run into Lieutenant Meehan on your travels?" Blithe confusedly replied "No, why?" Rose looked at him for a second before replying "Company HQ's still is missing. They say Meehan's plane went down." Then Dukeman butted in "They say he is going to turn up" Perconte looked doubtful, stating "Nah, I aint holding my breath." Rose silently agreed. "Who is in charge now?" asked Blithe after a while, "Captain Winters for now" replied Perconte.

Lieutenant Welsh called out "First Platoon on your feet. Let's go." Rose and the boys quickly prepared themselves to move, Bill came up to Rose, and he asked rather awkwardly "So how's you? I mean holding up..." Rose smiled "I'm fine Bill, how are you? I think I would be better without the formalities though" Bill chuckled "C'mon Princess, we have to move." Rose smiled; maybe they were right for each other. They moved into the square where everyone was, Lieutenant Welsh said "It is getting dark soon so I want noise and light discipline from now on and no playing grab fanny with the man in front of you Luz." To which Luz shouted back "What if the person in front of me is Sergeant Marshall" Luz then pinched Doc Roe's bum to which Welsh replied "Especially if the man in front of you is Rosemary" Don called out of nowhere "And Wild Bill will drop your ass." A trooper from the front called out "So where we heading?" Welsh replied "We are taking Carentan, so the armies from Omaha can link, it is the only place where we are armed, we take Carentan they are stuck on the beach, and General Taylor is sending the whole division." Upon hearing the words 'General Taylor' Luz stated "'Remember boys, maybe three days and three nights of rough fightin', and you will be relieved!" Everyone laughed at Luz's joke, "Another thing to remember boys, flies spread disease, so keep yours closed!" Rose laughed along with the rest of the men.

After about half an hour or so Rose started to walk next to Bill, she accidently bumped his shoulder and he came out with a monologue "I know you said that caring for me was a mistake, I am sorry for this, me caring for you is not, I would like another chance. You may never give me it but I will always be there, think on it. And Rose, don't get hurt, you owe me that dance." Rose was taken back "Don't you think that this is a little soon, you don't need to have a chance Bill, you still have yours, you don't get hurt either, I..." Bill once again was hurt by her words, he stormed off, she never finished her sentence, Rose cared for him; he just didn't want to know.

Rose was walking alongside Don when they stopped. They were at least half an hour before they moved on, they had lost F Company for the 4th time that evening, and it was getting tiring. They walked and rested for the rest of the night. They finally arrived at Carentan, early morning.

"Marshall, Luz, Muck, Malarkey, Perconte Leibgott and Talbert, follow me" Rose and the rest of the boys Welsh had chosen ran into Carentan. They all took cover except for Welsh and Luz who were still running when a German MG opened fire upon them. Welsh noticed that nobody was around so he shouted to Luz but so everyone could hear "Where the fuck is everybody? Where did everyone go?" Luz shouted equally as loud "I have no idea" The MG in the top corner was annoying Rose so when Strayer commanded "Get moving" Rose ran out onto the street and shot at the MG, she suddenly went down with a sharp pain in her left leg and left arm. She carried on running, the adrenaline was not slowing down, Rose saw Shifty take out his gun and shoot a sniper dead, and she was very impressed.

Mortars started exploding everywhere, Lipton shouted "They got us zeroed, get out of the streets" at the top of his range, Rose ran away from the fire and pulled her gun out but as soon as did a shell took out Lipton, she was about to run to get Lipton but Floyd got there first. Rose ran to Skip and Don, an Irish man was praying in the line of fire "Crazy fools the Irish" Don said and Skip replied you should know; the three of them pulled out their guns shooting down anything.

Rose after the Germans retreated fainted onto Malarkey; he carried her to the Aid Station. Rose was out cold but she was woken up to someone thundering "Where is she?"


	7. Chapter 7

AN: No Rose is not a whore she just has a good relationship with Bill, Nixon, Webster, Don and Harry

"Where is she?" shouted Bill from across the room. Rose fully regained her consciousness. She could hear Bill's voice. He was shouting at Roe, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up shakily, her left leg wobbling underneath her. She walked out of the bed into the view off Bill. "Rose" he shouted then he looked at her. He ran up to her, instead off the lecture she was expecting he wrapped his arms around her; she had blood crusted on her hands and her face. "Oh darling what happened?" she smiled at him "You were mad at me not 12 hours ago!" he looked at her face "Can I have another chance?" she said "Yes, Bill" He smiled "Great, now what happened? You shouldn't have opened fire on the sniper; Talbert's a good enough shot he would have got it in one..." he trailed off at the stern look on Rose's face. "Oh I have screwed up again!" Rose laughed "don't be so worried, you are such a stress head!" Bill raked a hand through his hair, Rose grabbed his hand and dragged him over to Skip, Malarkey, More, Penkala and Blithe.

"Look, who decided to show up!" called out Skip "Shut it Skip" he smiled "Sorry Princess couldn't help myself!" Malarkey cut across him stating "I am sorry I didn't notice your wounds for how serious they were an..." he was cut off by Rose giving him the hugest hug ever "No Don, I am sorry for passing out on you, I should have told you." They all were sat down when Skip opened some Kraut cheese. Speirs walked over to the group.

"Boys, we're moving out, be ready" he turned away but turned around to look at Rose "What happened" Rose stuttered for a moment "Ugh I got shot but it's nothing really compared." Lieutenant Speirs replied "Okay Rose makes sure you keep your ass out of trouble" she smiled up at him "Thanks Ron." Rose zoned out when Speirs started talking with the overly confident Penkala. Speirs sauntered away with his Captain like pose he always made evident. "So Princess when did you get chummy with him?" Rose scowled at Penkala for a moment "I am not; he is just concerned with my well being, nothing special about me." Don replied to the statement "Not special my ass and they call me Private Bullshit." Rose winked at Bill and said "Yeah they call me Sergeant Bullshit and stood up." She walked over to where Nixon was just lounging about.

"Sir" Nixon smiled up at her "Hey there, sit down, I feel like the only man in the company who doesn't really know ya!" She smiled appreciatively and sat down. "So what's our next move?" she asked breaking the silence "We defend Carentan...maybe?" She laughed at his sarcastic manner, "How you holding up?" she asked in a lighter tone, he replied "I'm good, much better than you it would seem" she smiled in spite of her aching muscles "I'm surviving" he looked at her and stood up, Rose followed suit "Ma'am I would like to congratulate your promotion to Second Lieutenant." She beamed with pride while Nixon beamed back saying "Sink also wants you to become a field nurse or combat nurse, so you will be assisting Lieutenant Welsh, since you are a woman, this is not my opinion, you will rank the same as Welsh, the decisions have to made together." She didn't care at that moment she was extremely happy.

Lieutenant Welsh called out for "Lieutenant Marshall C'mere." She walked over to where Harry and Richard were sitting. "Sir" Harry smiled at her in a very affectionate way "Get your men up we are moving out." She rolled her eyes "I'm not your skivvy but Hey-Ho, First Platoon on me, let's move, that means you too Private Blithe." Rose, Welsh and Richard made their way over to the meeting point. Bill looked over at looked over at her as he passed his on his way to second platoon. She just grinned in response. Perconte looked over at her in surprise "What you doing there?" she laughed at his bewildered face "I'm your new 2nd Lieutenant" Perconte was taken aback "Sorry Ma'am" Harry walked up beside her and briefed first platoon.

 **Later on that day...**

"How long are we going for?" whined Perconte to Hoobler, Rose and Luz, Luz sarcastically replied "I don't know, until they tell us to stop?" Then Hoobler seemed fixated in some sort of trance "There is high ground ahead." Rose laughed "Well done peanut." Perconte started ranting "We are the fifth of nine companies" Rose nodded her head "So why is it that we are never at the front of the invasion or at the back, we are always in the middle?!" Rose barked with laughter "Because we are the toughest sons of bitches." As she replied an ambush began, the men of easy company all dropped to the ground on the orders of Welsh. They all crawl up between the bushes and return fire, Rose was getting particularly fierce. Soon the fire ceased and everyone started digging foxholes. First and Second platoon merged.

Bill wandered over to Rose, "Alright Ma'am" she turned towards him and answered "Yes sir, yourself?" he smiled at her "I'm alright, see you have lost your manners from England, so would a lady be willing to share her foxhole." She smiled at him not fondly but shyly "Uh...of course" she stuttered out. Bill looked at her confusedly and he pulled her face softly to face him "Why you nervous Princess." She looked down at her feet "I need to talk to you."

Later on that night Bill and Rose were cramped in their foxhole talking when Bill mentioned their earlier conversation "Rose, what do we need to talk?" She went bright red but the dark night masked it "I have to tell you something that you may think differently of me for." Bill smiled gently at her and she shivered under his touch when he grabbed her hand traced his thumb on the back of her hand. He didn't let go of her hand or stop looking at her when he said "Rose? Are you okay?" She replied "I'm okay but I just don't want to see any of you hurt or dying, I'm training to be a medic, but what if I collapse under pressure and my frantic mistakes hurts somebody?"

Bill took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. "You will be fine Princess, I trust you and so do the other boys, we all think you are the most beautiful girl we ever met and if your help isn't good enough at least we can die looking at the woman who would do anything for us and then we would be at peace."

Rose was taken aback by his words she smiled comfortingly at him she replied "If you are going to tell me that, tell me when you need a pretty face" and she just laid her head on him and went to sleep. He chuckled softly and thought: _What I wouldn't do for your pretty face._

Bill and Rose were interrupted by the sound of heavy German gunfire. Rose grabbed all of her equipment and headed for the front line. She makes it to the front line separated from Bill, she ends up with a few of the men she didn't know so well but she liked them none the less. They were surprised to see that she didn't miss a single target when she was firing and could load a gun faster than any man. She suddenly noticed that German Tanks were approaching. She was called over by Harry "Rose, get your ass her, we are taking that thing out." Hatred seeped through her veins as she thought of the men she had seen blown apart.

Harry grabbed a Bazooka off of an unsuspecting private and ran onto the battlefield with Rose hot on his heels, they crouched down in front of the tank Harry in front aiming and Rose behind firing. They had friendly and enemy bullets whizzing past them as they took aim, the tank tipped up exposing its weak spot but they missed it and it rebounded they took aim again, this time the tank was pointing at them ready to fire, the tank tipped again exposing its weak spot once more than it was firing when Rose let the shell fly and she smiled in triumph as she hit her target, the cannon exploded but it went point blank range into the ground.

The tanks from the second armoured division then enter and obliterate the tanks. Rose and Harry ran for cover, she was swept into an enormous hug from Don, she smile with his, she had blood splattered everywhere and a severely bruised face. Webster than came over to pick her up in hug and swung her around he then put her down and said to her with the most sincerity "Don't go suicidal again Princess we don't want you to get hurt." She looked at the seriousness in his eyes but she just kissed his cheek and moved on to where Bill was standing. She ran up to him and he wrapped her in the biggest hug she could have ever received and kissed him in the cheek. When the celebrations had died down and the officers were all talking and lounging about without much weight on their shoulders Harry told the story of Rose and him taking out the tank. Lewis and Richard were very impressed. Lewis and Rose shared a foxhole before heading out on patrol in the morning. Lewis looked at Rose "Rose, you are freezing, I am warm come here." She snuggled herself into Nixon without much persuasion, she wasn't in the best state after the day's work. He smiled on her head. His arms snaked around her and held her close. Nixon couldn't deny he had feelings for the girl but knew he never had a chance; she wasn't the type to go after married men anyway.

It was the morning when Rose woke up tangled in Lew's arms. She looked at him from her sleepy slumber with a morning smile on her face and he looked down at her affectionately. "Morning Princess, get your ass moving or Harry will have our hides" he said in sing song voice. Rose mumbled " _cinq minutes s'il vous plaît_ _"_ He laughed out a bark and said "Nope, get up" and he carried her bridal style out of the foxhole." Harry saw the two and threw an amount of water over Rose's head to get her moving. She was not amused.

They were on Patrol when Harry said to Nixon and Rose "I need someone to have a look" Nixon agreed and said "I need to know what is in there." Rose looked at the two and said "Ask for volunteers" Harry replied bitterly "I hate asking for volunteers" but he sighed and called to the men "I need to take a look what is inside that building who wants to go?" There was no movement until Blithe stood up and volunteered "I will Sir." Harry looked too his best soldiers "Anybody else? Okay Johnny, Dukeman well done, Blithe is lead scout." The wandered to the cart to see what was behind but suddenly a sniper shot at Blithe's neck, Dukeman and Johnny dragged him away shouting medic whilst Harry was shouting "covering fire". They had to retreat.

Rose from a quick nod from Lewis went with Blithe in the jeep to the hospital. Roe was there and immediately came rushing over. "Rose, what's wrong?" she replied very quickly with "Sniper...Blithe...Neck!" and started bustling around for equipment, Roe thanked her appreciatively and she walked of the hospital. There she bumped into Dick and fell over promptly, Dick caught her and stood her upright. "Whoa easy tiger, what's wrong?" Rose replied by blubbering out the whole story of Blithe and being completely useless. By the time she had finished Nixon was there ad was chuckling, "What are you so amused by Lew?" She looked at him with a glare that warned him that she wasn't in a mood for jovial Lewis. He chuckled harder then stopped "Rose, we need you, you saved hundreds of men with Harry the other day and you have been a rock for all of the men since they saw their friends die, you are anything but useless" he got more serious with the sentence as it went on, Nixon pulled her in a tight hug. This time she chuckled "I seem to be using you as a pillow or hugging you far too often Lew" he winked and said "Who said I minded?" Winters left to go talk with Lynn.

The next day they were in the barn/mess and everyone was hushed to listen to Smokey when Don and Penkala came back from their little drive on the bike, Rose had turned a blind eye. Smokey continued:

"The night was filled with dark and cold,

When Sergeant Talbert, the story's told,

Pulled on his poncho and headed out,

To check the lines dressed like a Kraut.

Upon a trooper, our hero came,

Fast asleep, he called his name,

Smith! Oh, Smith! Get up! It's time

To take your place out on the line.

Smith, so very weary,

Cracked an eye all read and bleary,

Grabbed his gun, he did not tarry,

Hearing Floyd but seeing Jerry.

DON'T! Cried Tab, IT'S ME! And yet,

Smith charged, tout suite, with bayonet.

He lunged, he thrust, both high and low,

And skewered the boy from Kokomo.

And as they carried him away,

Our punctured hero was heard to say,

When in this war you venture out,

Best never do it dressed as a Kraut!"

All the men cheered and laughed, Floyd and Smith looking incredibly embarrassed. Smokey still hadn't done "Since you weren't wounded by the enemy and thus didn't qualify for a purple heart, we decided to take matters into our own hands, this is for you Floyd" he unhooked his third purple heart from his jacket and held it up for Talbert to collect. Floyd perked up saying "I could have shot the kid a hundred times; I just didn't think we could spare the men!" The men laughed at him and with him.

Edward Heffron was about to leave the barn/mess when Bill, who Rose was sat next to, stopped him. Bill asked Edward where he was from and he replied "South Philly" Bill was excited by this news and said "I could tell, 17th street" Edward said "Front street and took a seat opposite Bill. They were talking about South Philly when Rose was called over to Lew, Lipton and Dick.

"What's up boys?" she asked them hesitantly, they told her that they were being shipped back out again and will not return to England soon. Lipton offered to deliver the bad news but Rose said "No, I'll do it." She walked up to the front of the hall and just stood there, she liked the bit of power which meant that she could just do that and everybody looked at her. "First the training tonight has being cancelled also pack your stuff boys, we are heading out and will not return to England soon." Edward then turned to Bill "Since when did we have a fit Second Lieutenant?" Bill looked at him and said "I was starting to like ya kid, she is not fit, she is an Angel, and wouldn't you agree?" the men around Bill agreed. Rose walked over to them "Sorry, we got to get moving" and walked away with the other officers to her barracks.

She spent the rest of the night with the guys and been in a very good mood, until she had to wake up the next morning to leave.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Filler chapter, I'm struggling with writers block and motivation, the more reviews the more motivation so more chapters! Strong language! UPDATE: Not a filler chapter any more going to merge 8 and nine and re-edit it because I wasn't happy!**

"Hello Grandpa" Rose called to her grandpa Peter Marshall, he smiled at her "Hello Rosie girl, how you holding up" she smiled back at him thinking of how her Grandpa seemed so casual with her even if she was going to War with American soldiers "I'm okay, I got shot a few time but that's life." Peter looked at her fondly "I know what it is like to be shot, you only want it to happen once but once you get shot, you keep getting shot." Rose laughed at his honesty "Oh how honest, it's an easy company tradition to get shot in the derrière! Her Grandma walked in "Oh Rosemary Elaine Marshall, do go get dressed for dinner, you look at state!" Peter laughed out loud "Oh Mary, oh Mary, the girl's come back from war and you say get dressed for dinner! Ha!" Rose smiled "Yes Grandma" and tottered off upstairs. Her grandmother wasn't expecting her to come down looking pristine in her uniform. She looked at her shocked especially when she heard a knock on the door. Rose went to get the door and saw Bill standing outside

When they got there Bill and Rose had sought out Lynn, Johnny, Bull and Luz. They were playing darts with Buck and Babe's seat. "Your're having a tough night sir, people have tough nights, you're having one it's okay." said Luz in a soppy tone to Buck after he threw. "Hey Babe, Heffron you want to?" said Buck to Babe after he had thrown. "Double seven" Babe said lining up to his throw, when he hit it the men all praised him with 'ohs' and 'ahs'. Bill offered Babe a drink and said "I think your buddies are starting too miss ya, I'm going to introduce myself." said Bill in a cocky (normal tone) and Bull replied in mock serious "Be careful what you say, doesn't take much to set my boys off" Rose chuckled at that. So Johnny replied "Yeah, you got some wide eye killers there Bull" with a grin across his face.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Babe and Buck start betting and seeing that he had shot lefty all night to get this in the bag and change to righty for a bullseye. Rose would never understand men's passion for billiard games. Bill sat down with Miller, Garcia and another man Rose didn't know "Hello fellas what do you know what do you say?" said Bill in a friendly manner but the one Rose didn't know chimed up "That's Babe's seat, Private Heffron's." Bill looked at him as if he had grown three heads "Really? I don't care if it's fucking Eisenhower's, who are you?" he looked at Miller "Private Miller, James Miller, I'm in Sargent Randleman's squad." The next man spoke up that Rose and the rest didn't know "I'm Les Hashey" then Garcia tried to speak up but was interrupted by Bill "Tony Garcia, I know who you are, old goneherria doesn't miss anything!" said Bill in a worn out voice. Rose then walked over to them and smiled sweetly "Hello boy's, Bill I hope you're not scaring them." said Rose putting them at ease instantly "Hello Lieutenant Marshall" said Miller, her clear favourite of the three. Rose spoke up "So has Babe told you about Doris yet?" the Les spoke up "No" Rose had a grin on er face but Bill got in first "Well we're going to educate you, getting ready on that plane for that first fraught town we never jumped into and suddenly Heffron stops in his tracks and everyone banging into one another" then Rose butted in "He is just staring at the top of the pane because on it there was this beautiful pin up and written underneath was Darling Doris." Then Bill took over "Doris just happened to be the name of of the girl that just that day sent him one of those letters." the he hesitated "Web what do you call them letters that they send?" Webster had to think for a moment "Um, a dear John letter." so Bill looked pleased with himself and continued "Ha, a Dear Babe letter." Rose turned to see Babe hang his head but with a grin on his face. Bill continued and Rose zoned out thinking about a 'Dear John' letter.

Rose had gotten on of these when she started training at Toccoa off of her fiancée in Georgia called Edward. She wasn't actually heartbroken and had discarded the letter when she read it thinking. "I am finally free!"

"Hey Bull, your squad listens up real good!" said Bill in an impressed manner, then Johnny chimed up "Like when ever Bull opens his mouth" Rose looked at him "Hey Johnny, you trying to say that Bull's boys just humour him?" and Johnny had an instant reply "Yeah, like whenever Bull gives out some of his folksy wisdom from back down on the farm." Rose and Bill shared a grin, they loved it when they had mock arguments to scare people into thinking they were serious. "They probably think he is a fucking hasty, that right?" Bill said to the newbies they were all chuckling. Jonny turned serious but the Toccoa soldiers knew that he was joking "What are you laughing at?" all of the laughter and colour drained out of the faces of the lads. "Hey boys, pay attention to Sargent Randleman got that?" they all nodded solemnly at Bill "That's the smartest man in the company" Bill said and just got up and left.

Cobb turned to Miller. Rose had never liked Cobb, he thought she was weak and she thought he was a prick so they were even. "Where did you get that?" asked Cobb in a patronizing tone. Miller tried his best to be polite but he came across as impatient "It is a presidential citation for what...for what the regiment did in Normandy." Cobb looked even more cocky "That's right, for what the regiment did, you weren't there." said Cobb coldly. Hoobler saw what was going and told Cobb "Hey, hey Cobb, ease up a little, it's a unit citation" Then Miller took off his badge and placed it on the table and left it with a sad smile as he left the pub. Then Bull piped up "Shit Cobb, you didn't fight in Normandy either." Cobb then tried to explain to Garcia who looked wholly unimpressed with the situation "I got hit in the plane before we could jump."

"Oi Cobb!" said Rose sternly. He turned slowly towards her "Oh has the little girl got something to say, but Gaurnere isn't here to protect you now." said Cobb patronizingly, Webster stood up slowly. "I am a senior officer Private, show some god damn respect, and secondly, you have no right to speak to the replacements like that be pleased I am not reporting this incident to the Brass or Nixon and Winters." and sat down.

Lipton ever the faithful friend told Smokey to make an announcement that he wanted to speak. "I have an announcement to make!" patting Lipton on the shoulder, Malarkey called out "He is married Smokey." Smokey didn't like being interrupted but carried on with a smile on his face "This here is Carwood Lipton, Easy Company's new first Sergeant." All the men hollered for Lipton. Rose already knew what was happening so she just smiled encouraging at Lipton he smiled thankfully back. "Oh right boys, pack up your gear, we're heading out again."

 **Next Day:  
** "As you can see this is called Operation Market Garden, in terms of airborne divisions, this one is bigger than Normandy, we're dropping deep into occupied Holland, The allied objective is to take this road here between Eidenhoven and Arnhem, so two British Armoured divisions can move up, our job is to liberate Eidenhoven, stay there and wait for the tanks" said Winters to the boys. Then Nixon took over "The entire European advance has been put on hold and allocated resources for this operation and Montgomery's personal plan will be put under British Command." he paused as the men groaned. "The good news is if this works the tanks will be over the Rhine and into Germany, that could end the war and get us home before Christmas." The men and Rose nodded at this news. "It will be a daytime jump and intelligence don't expect much opposition, they think the Krauts in this area are mainly armed kids and old men and we should take them by surprise. In any case, say goodbye to England, I don't think they are going to call this one off.

 **September 17** **th** **1944**

Bull Randleman was giving advice to the new replacements; he seemed to be the only one for a soft spot for them. Rose was checking off all of her equipment with shaking hands until she noticed a familiar face. "Hey, Hey Bill isn't that Sobel?" this perked the attention of Malarkey, who looked very guilty, Skip and Leibgott as well as Bill. "Oh shit, that's him alright" Malarkey said out loud. Rose broke out into a grin and started squealing "POPEYE!" Popeye laughed and came over to see them but was intercepted by Lipton and Bull. "Hey Popeye, what is your scrawny little butt doing here?" he laughed at her and explained "Sobel found me and asked if I wanted to sit out the jump, I refused said I could do it so he said hop in" Bull looked amazed more than anything "Hop in?" he asked questioningly "I know I was surprised to!" Lipton looked very concerned for a moment "How are you going to land?" Popeye smiled "Oh I can land, I just can't sit." I laughed "But Popeye, what's Sobel doing here?" he looked very grave "Oh he is the new regimental S4, supply officer, maybe he will court martial me later, I don't know guess I got lucky!" Rose smiled and went back to reassessing all of her equipment.

"Hey Princess what's got your pants in a twist?" asked Skip, Rose smiled at him "It is irrational it doesn't matter..." and walked off with the sass of a girl who just came up with a cunning plan. "Hey Bill" Rose nudged him "Hey lil girl, what's got you all in a tizzy?" She sighed "This operation is under British command, everyone is slagging off the British and it's annoying and how am I supposed to be a good Lieutenant if I can't keep my head straight when someone offends my home country!" She said very quickly. Bill looked thoughtful "You're a great lieutenant, one of the best we have we are all grateful no matter what accent you have!" Rose laughed loudly, "Come on it's time to go!"

It was a few hours later when they hit the DZ. "Hook up, check off!" shouted Harry. "Five okay" Rose shouted and tapped the man in front of her. Rose looked at the green space below her, she didn't like seeing where she could land but flung herself out of the door anyway thoroughly enjoying the adrenaline.

They dropped into the field and Rose could see the replacements struggling with the parachute, she made her way over to help but Bull got there first. She ran up to Malarkey, Skip and Bill. "1st Platoon, let's move let's move!" Rose shouted and continued running past the three and up to Richard, Harry, Ron, Lynn and Lewis. "What needs to be done?" asked Rose to Harry. "Keep the men moving and quiet." She nodded at him and went to gather her platoon.

"There is some sort of hold up ahead, we're going in through this field here" the Lieutenant said to Bull. He gave the signal to stand and move. They crept through the field. Miller and the Lieutenant crouched until they saw the woman in the window hang out an orange flag. They walked into the town and the people were singing and dancing. The higher ranks (Lipton upwards) were trying to keep everyone moving but it was harder for Rose than the others. The men looked at her with interest and made many advances on her. She met up with Nixon and Winters "Dick, Rose, clock is ticking" both Dick and Rose said "Yep" to his comment. Buck and Harry were behind them looking for snipers but Nix was getting kissed and he looked at her pleadingly for her to help him. he turned to Dick, Harry and Buck "This is not fraternizing, I'm helping Nixon" and dragged him by the arm to face her and kissed him full on the mouth. The people around them cheered and he led her by her hand when Dick said "We have got to get to these bridges." They all continued onwards until Rose saw Talbert passionately kissing a woman "Sargent Talbert" Rose said loudly dragging him away from the woman by his ear.

Suddenly from behind four men grabbed the woman who Talbert was snogging and pulled her to her knees. There were other women too and the people were shouting "Slet! Slet! Slet!" at the women which Rose recognised as "Slut". The men of Easy and Rose looked on in confusion. She was stood with Nixon and Dick, Nixon grabbed her hand and squeezed it as he saw her eyes glaze over. He knew she had not seen many women for months and this was how they were getting treated. It was against everything they stood for. "Oh Lew, what can we do?" he looked at her sympathetically "I'm sorry Princess but there is nothing we can do.". A man walked up to them and Dick asked "What did they do?" Rose turned round to him with a steely glare "They slept with the Germans, they are lucky, the men who cooperated are been shot." the man stated and looked Rose in the eye, not understanding her pain. Then Nixon introduced him "This sir here is from the Dutch Resistance" he walked up to Dick and shook his hand violently "We have been hoping and waiting for this day for almost five years." Nixon was on a schedule though "He says he can help us secure these Bridges." They started walking, the man said "Yes, it will help us push the Germans out of Eidenhoven that is not just the beginning" He then walked off to a red headed child. "Any idea where they could be?" asked Rose to Lew "We're still working on that part" he replied clearly stressed. "These lads are gaining information as we speak." he said pointing to the child, then Nixon received information as too the whereabouts of the armoured divisions "These are reliable sources, anything we can do to help we will do anything." The three looked at the man suspiciously. They turned to see the British tanks had arrived.


	9. Chapter 9

"Captain, I would be happy to show you the quickest way to the bridges" said the man from the Dutch Resistance, Dick jumped down from the lamp post he had just climbed and shook the man's hand.

"We would be happy to have your help" Dick said in a slightly more relaxed tone. "Get your scouts to the edge of the town in case we have to stay the night" add Dick to Nixon, Buck, Harry and Rosemary.

Later on that evening Rosemary, Webster and Penkala were relaxing against the haystack. Rose was thinking about Bill and how her feelings had grown when Hoobler's voice suddenly said "Sleeping outside is for suckers". A trap door opened and a man came out. Instinctively the four of the them readied their weapons.

"Sprechen Sie Englisch?" asked Rose to the man in a quick tone.

"Yes a little bit" replied the man worriedly. Rose thought that they were probably scaring the poor man

"What were you doing down their?" asked Hoobler suspiciously

"It's an air raid shelter; me and my family have been there ever since the first plane flew over

"We're Americans, paratroopers" said Penkala.

"The Germans, are gone?" asked the man hopefully.

"Yeah we think so" said Webster

"Are you here to stay?" asked the man once again

"As long as we have to" said Rose in an authoritative voice

"They don't tell us much" said Webster

"Or feed us much" added Hoobler

"Wait here" said the man, who presumably went to go find the soldiers some food.

"Wow guys, you really can charm the hind leg off of a donkey!" said Rose

"And don't you know it Rosie" said Webster with a cheeky grin

"I say screw Paris" said Penkala

"Don't talk about screwing alright?" asked Hoobler in a tired tone

"They all speak English, they all love us, what a fabulous country" said Webster in a shallow tone to which Rose gave a disapproving looks.

"Hey take a look" said Hoobler drawing attention to the man carrying some jars. The man signalled to his little boy in Dutch that he could come out. The child was very cute and sat with an adorable face on the top of the air raid shelter.

"Cigarette?" offered Hoobler. To which the man agreed to. Webster walked over to the small boy and handed him a chocolate bar. The man walked over and unwrapped the chocolate for the boy. Webster and Rose knelt down in front of the boy as the child took a bite out of the chocolate. Rose thought that this chocolate wasn't the best.

"He never tasted chocolate" said the man in a less enthusiastic voice than earlier.

"It's pretty good isn't it" stated Webster to the boy. Rose was on the verge of her eyes watering, she had hardened up because of the war but she was yet to witness something as moving as what she just saw.

Hoobler, Penkala, Webster and Rose spent the night in the man's barn. The next morning they were following a road with some men sprawled across the tanks or walking beside chatting or just taking in the scenery. Rose was on a Tank with Bull, Webster, Hoobler, Babe and Cobb. She was taking in the scenery as she noticed a sign for Nuenen. She left the Tank she was sitting on and went to find the other officers.

As the tanks rolled on a woman with a small baby stood in the road wearing hardly anything. Rose recognised her as one of the women abused at Eidenhoven yesterday. She saw some of the men giving her parts of their rations but Rose knew the baby had to be warm as did the mother. She leapt down from the Tank and handed over her blanket. "You know Rose, when you're complaining you are cold, I'm not giving you my blanket" said Nixon.

"Oh Lew, when I complain, you will be the first in line begging me to take your blanket" Rose laughed and stayed silent as she heard the other men rip shit out of Nixon.

"Lieutenant" shouted Bull in warning. A second later the Lieutenant was shot by a sniper which caused panic among the men. The men all jumped off and ran into a ditch but Bull went towards the Lieutenant and shouted "Medic" Rose saw this as her chance to go but Rose got there first.

"Oi Princess, you aint going anywhere" said a familiar voice from behind her. She was happy to see the idiot she loved but also was mad at him for scaring her when she had her gun ready. No words came out of her mouth but she kissed Bill and carried on running. It was an impulsive action, she didn't know what came over her but she did it and now it was done there was no turning back. She had fallen for the South Philly.

"Get out, keep moving, get out" came the clear orders from Buck. Rose ran as fast as she could and found cover next to Johnny. She stood and carried on running next to Bill. They stopped at a corner and looked out for snipers and krauts. Rose and Johnny both spotted a tiger at the same time. Rose ran behind a wall out of sight of the tank. Then ran at the British tank, her actions had become reckless but she knew something had to be done.

"There is a Kraut tank right there in that haystack" shouted Rose as the driver got his binoculars out and had a look.

"I don't see him" said the driver. Rose groaned, that was why she was telling him, because she could see him and he couldn't.

"Put a few shells into that building and you'll see him real good" said Rose impatiently, her patience was growing thin.

"I can't my orders are no unnecessary destruction of property" shouted the man

"I'm telling you he is right there" shouted Rose with clear frustration.

"I believe you but if I can't see the bugger, I can't bloody well shot him can I" said the man as equally frustrated. "You stay on your going" he added and looked at her like she didn't have any right to give him orders, a girl in the American Army give him orders. The man looked as though he was repulsed by her, probably thinks she should be making tea for her grandmother.

Rose jumped down from the tank and couldn't find cover in time. She felt her back burning, she screamed out in pain but didn't pass out she heard shouting around her but she stood up and pulled up her gun and started firing at any Kraut or tank she could find.


	10. Chapter 10

Rose didn't know what going on around her but she saw a tank was been blown up and Bull giving orders to pull back. Rose, Johnny and Bill all ran for cover pulling their guns on the Krauts which had just come out of the building. She noticed a sniper shooting as Bull as he was running. There was no way to get to him. She prayed that he would be safe and find the company afterwards.

Bill and Rose left Johnny and rounded a corner but stayed hidden behind a bush. Rose wanted to take out the sniper but if she missed her and Bill were dead. Suddenly a large number of men had joined them but were being chased by the tanks. "Fall back! Fall back!" shouted Bill. Rose and the rest of them started running from the Battle field. Walls and buildings were being destroyed. Rose saw Sergeant Grant take out a machine gun in a window with a Bazooka. Bill stayed with Luz on the radio and had gone red in the face shouted random words only half of which made sense. Luz and Welsh were left since Bill was running around.

Rose had run to a ditch where she saw Malarkey and Buck. "Buck, Don you okay?" Rose shouted over the Battlefield noise. They just nodded. Rose came over and started tending to what seemed to be Buck's ass.

"Malarkey, get them out of here go!" said Buck

"What?" cried Malarkey who was very clearly confused

"Leave me here for the Germans" said Buck, panting from the pain in his ass.

"You nuts?" asked Don

"We will carry you" said Roe and Rose in unison.

"Are you shitting me? I weigh more than you three combined" said Buck, defeated already deciding his fate.

"We shit you not" said Rose determinedly

Buck was laid on a door which Malarkey had knocked down and was been dragged by Skip, Malarkey, Rose and Bill. They were not going to leave their Lieutenant. They dragged him to the trucks where they met Lipton "Lip, Lip, we don't know where Bull is!" said Bill as Rose climbed on the truck.

Rose turned her back and Roe nearly had a fit. "Rosemary! Let me have a look at that back right now!" shouted Roe. Rose was reluctant but Dick gave her a stern look which meant 'Rose let the Doc have a look at your back now!" Rose laid over the Doc and Bill's legs so he could take a look. The men looked really shaken up and Rose could bet that her cries of pain weren't helping. Roe cleaned her up as quick as possible and she just laid there. She hadn't cried since Normandy and now she let out a few sobs of pain. She felt Bill running his fingers through her hair to calm her down. The situation was taking a toll on easy company.

"Do you know where Bull is?" asked Gaurnere in a more serious voice than Rose had only heard once when his brother died.

"I don't know, I don't know" said Jonny in a tired hoarse voice. Rose felt sorry for Johnny, he and Bull were real close and now he didn't know if he was dead or missing or captured. Rose lifted her head and looked for Miller.

"Hashey, where is Miller?" asked Rose, he voice giving away that she knew as soon as she asked.

"Sorry Ma'am we lost him" said Hashey in a broken voice.

"Call me Rose" said Rose kindly "And God bless Pvt. James Miller" added Rose in a tired voice which matched Johnny's.

The boys after a few hours travelling came to a green embankment next to a road. Rose's truck all found a spot on the ground and started cleaning their guns or sat staring into space.

"Lieutenant Brewer's going to make it" said Hoobler in a lighter tone

"How is that possible?" asked Webster

"Send him back to England they will probably send him home" said Rose

"He did turn his head at the last second when Sergeant Randleman called out to him" said Garcia. They all went silent at the mention of Bull.

Bill got up and said "If there aint no body then there aint nobody dead!" he said loudly as if he was trying to give them hope that Bull might come back. Hoobler, Hashey and Garcia all agreed to make a search party whilst Bill found them some ammo along with Rosie.

"Go get them" said Rose. Then Webster agreed to join the search party.

"I'll go" said Rose but a hand on her hand told her differently. She saw the eyes of Bill with a look of no in his eyes. She didn't have the strength to fight and Dick might need her at some point. At the moment she was relived to recover her strength and boost her morale by spending some time with the men.

"Hey Rosie, I think we need to talk" said Bill after a long silence. Rose agreed by nodding her head. "Did you mean it Rosie, please I have to know" said Bill quietly but desperately. Rose nodded her head. "Oh Rosie, you have no idea how much that means to me, I may not be a gentleman but I do love you, after all we have been through will you tell me something Rosie, when this is over will you marry me?" asked Bill. Rose thought for a moment and nodded slowly "Say something Rosie" asked Bill.

"Yes, Bill, I'll marry you" said Rosie. A million things swirled round her head, she didn't know what her parents would make of this but she had decided long ago she wasn't going back to Georgia. She had thought about a career in the army but she didn't know what Bill would think.

Rose and Bill sat talking for the next few hours and finally fell asleep. The next morning a car drove up carrying the search party and Bull. She hadn't seen the company so relieved in a whiel

"Bull, you get lost?" asked Martin

"Something like that" said Bull

"Good to see you" replied Johnny

"I don't know whether to slap you, kiss you or salute you!" said Bill. Rose just gave him a huge hug which he returned.

"Good to see you Princess" said Bull in a very happy manner.

"I told these scallywags you were okay"

"Didn't listen"

"These sulking bastards wanted to go on a suicide mission and drag your ass back" said Bill

"That right?" asked Bull "I always did like this company" he added nonchalantly.

"Alright, let's move out" called Dick from a tank. As soon as he said that Johnny was assembling first platoon, Bill second platoon, Bull his squad and Rose shouting to get there arses moving.

Rose knew that Market Garden had failed, the war was not going to be over by Christmas.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Sorry for going AWOL and if you're still following the story this is chapter 11 I think x And I have added more to this chapter!**_

Rose was pondering whether agreeing to marry Bill was right. She had known him three years true but she had only ever been with him at work and she had never met his family. Currently she was laid in the field hospital finishing off the last of her treatment, she was sure to be discharged today. Sure enough later that day Rose was discharged by Roe and was free to return to Battalion HQ. Bill had given her a ring he got sent in a letter from home but she couldn't wear it so it rested next to her dog tags. Rose loved Bill, that much had become clear but she didn't know if she wanted to marry just yet, been engaged was enough for now.

October 5th 1944

A week later the Company was at the crossroads, well Rose was sat with Richard who was cleaning and fixing something with some tape. "Replacements, new to how and what ifs, I swear one of them has never shaved" I said to Richard, who agreed with me.

"Yeah, Kids" dead panned Dick.

"This is one hell of a dog Rose" said Luz as Rose threw a stick to him.

"What have you called him Rosie?" asked Dick, she could tell his mind was racing so she humoured him

"Trigger" I said as I continued to inspect the table I was sat on

"That's good, I like that" said Luz, Luz was such a nice character to have on the front line because of his humour and ability to lift anyone's spirits just by talking to them.

"Got anything on this?" I asked Luz as I noticed the radio.

"Nope all quiet" said Luz but as soon as the words left his lips the patrol came bursting through the doors.

"It's okay Alley, okay, get him on the table" said one soldier, Rose couldn't tell who through the mass of voices but she could deduce what was going on, Alley had been hit and they needed Roe.

"Alright I got this" said Roe's clear New York accent as they laid Alley on the table.

"Where am I? Where am I?" asked Alley clearly losing his ability to think properly.

"It's okay Alley, Roe's gonna get you fixed up real nice" Rose soothed as she stroked his hair in what she hoped was a comforting manner.

"Where was it?" asked Dick to Leibgott who clearly looked shaken up and agitated.

"Crossroads" came is reply

"If it wasn't for your loud mouth they would never have known" said Joe D

"Hey you know what Joe back off" said Joe L threateningly.

"Go run for the Lieutenant now!" I said to break of any argument which wasn't helping Alley

"Lipton, assemble me a squad" ordered Dick, clearly in battle mode.

"Okay, first squad on your feet, let's move it, come on now, weapons and ammo only" barked Lipton. Rose grabbed her gun and ammo along with the rest of first squad.

First squad now extremely quiet but with adrenaline pumping through them tiptoed though a shallow ditch led by Dick. They walked only five or six paces in the ditch and then a machine gun rang out which prompted Easy to drop to the ground and wait until it was clear.

"MG42" said Rose to which Dick agreed to "What the hell are they shooting at?" Rose asked

"Probably Battalion but that is three miles away, why give away their position? Anyway it needs checking out, stay here and wait for the signal" said Dick quietly to Rose.

"Yes Sir" said Rose. On the ground all they could hear was irregular shots of machine gun fire, Rose thought that if Bill could see her now he would go ape shit. Dick gave the signal and Rose gave the signal for some to stay in the ditch and some to follow her, they all knew who she was on about. Rose and her fellows climbed up the bank and rolled down it which Rose couldn't help but smile at. They ran across the track as quickly as they could down to the next banking, Rose was enjoying the thrill of the chase.

"This the fall back point, mortars deploy here, first squad on me" ordered Dick in a shout whisper voice as Germans were shouting in the background, Dick and Rose both gave the signal to crouch. Dick ran up the hill and observed for a moment until he saw what was going on and called first squad up to him, he started telling people who to shoot. Rose had to shoot the first on the right and Talbert the second on the right, both being very good shots Dick was relying on them to hit first time. Dick shot first but then more soldiers came so it was free for all, as soon as Dick's squad had finished firing a mortar went off then the machine gun, this was true example of how Easy worked, together because together they stood alone. Dick and Rose were parted and at the fall back point she met with Leibgott and Cob who were getting ready to fire.

"There are trench based Germans in there" she said to the pair of them as they fired. She made her way back to Dick and he was calling for suppressing fire and ordered Dukeman to go fetch something but as soon as he stood he was shot, Joe Toye gave the statement that Dukeman was down. Rose hated it when someone died, she never really felt like they were gone only back home but deep down she knew she would never see them again.

The following day Rose, Talbert and Peacock got the orders "Peacock you take ten me up the left flank, Talbert you take ten men up the right flank, Marshall you stick to me, we're going down the middle so you two follow down the sides, questions? Good go" this came from Dick Winters.

"Fix bayonets" ordered Rose "Go on the red smoke" added as an order. Dick hesitated until he finally popped the can of red smoke and ran for it. The can started to fizz but no smoke came out but some of the men wanted to run, Perconte and Bull, until Peacock ordered them to wait for the smoke. Rose was glad at least someone listened to her orders. It finally went off and the thirty three men and one woman ran like hell to support Dick who had just started taking out a division by himself. They reached him and started firing at the Germans. It turned out they were an SS division, they didn't really stand a chance against easy but suddenly more men came.

"Christ on a fucking bike!" cried Rose and then Peacock saw

"It's a whole other company!" shouted Peacock. But this didn't deter easy company they just pulled out their machine guns, the grenades and kept firing. Webster, Johnny and Rose looked in a ditch where two SS officers came out speaking German.

"What is he saying?" asked Johnny, who quite amusingly for a good soldier didn't speak a single word of German.

"They are telling us they are Polish!" said Webster, highly confused. To this Rose jumped into the ditch.

"There aint no Polish in the SS, now move" Johnny shouted prodding them with his bayonet, they didn't understand what he said but they seemed to get a gist of what he was saying.

They took them as prisoners and started running with the rest of the men, until Webster was shot in the leg. Rose thought that he was making too much of a deal about it been the Queen of getting wounded.

It was later on when Joe Leibgott seemed to be shooting at nothing when Rose told him to knock it off. "Christ Joe, knock it off" but he kept shooting "That's an order!" Rose shouted as he finished off his ammo.

"Jesus Christ Princess, they're just Krauts" he said agitated, angry and impatient.

"Don't disobey me again Joe, I won't tolerate it, Captain wants you to take these prisoners to Battalion CP" Rose said calmly.

"Come on Kraut boys" shouted Joe until Rose stopped him going any further.

"Drop your ammo" Rose ordered, Joe looked bewildered, "Give me your weapon" which he did so, Rose took out his ammo and left him one round "You have one round I want all those prisoners alive, shoot one and the rest will jump you" Rose said clearly and sternly. "How many prisoners do we have Johnny?" Hollered Rose to which Johnny replied that they had eleven "Remember I want them all alive Joe, I mean it" with that he left to take them back.

"We had them on the run" said Peacock to Nixon who wasn't really paying any attention.

"What's that?" questioned Nixon, now finally interested

"These were flooding back to the ferry crossing when we came at them with artillery, it was like a turkey shoot, then they hit us with their eighty eights and zeroed in on these crossroads, we were luck though only twenty two wounded" informed Peacock.

"Lucky? Where is Captain Winters?" asked Nixon who had absorbed all the information and didn't consider them to be lucky. Dick and Rose were sat by a post on their own taking in the nights events. They suddenly looked up when the heard Nixon approaching. "22 wounded, lucky huh, you okay?" asked Nixon clearly very sceptical.

"Yeah, one killed" said Dick morbidly

"Who?" asked Nixon looking at the pair now understanding why the looked so down.

"Dukeman" Rose managed to choke out and zoned out on what Nixon and Dick were saying.

"You got a drink?" asked Dick "Of water?" he added smiling slightly knowing his good friend to be an addict. Nixon sniffed the water before clarifying that it was indeed water. Rose and Dick shred it between them.

The three of them made their way over to where Colonel Sink was he immediately started saying "three sixty third hit off earlier this morning about the same time these SS made a run for my CP down the road, third battalion got the hell beaten out of them, Horton was killed" he said this very sadly.

"Major Horton is dead? I can't believe it" said Rose, clearly disturbed by the news

"Yes Rose, they hit 2nd Battalion CP with force, he was organising the defence...Captain Nixon, Lieutenant Marshall if you will excuse us for a moment" asked Sink before heading off with Dick. Rose noticed he was been promoted to Major!

"Good Lord! Lew! Dick's been promoted to Major!" Rose squealed with delight and gave Nixon a huge hug. They both laughed and grinned until they realised that Dick wasn't going to be commanding Easy. "Oh Lew I do hope Moose gets the command of Easy, I like him" Rose said with a sudden revelation to Nixon but he smiled deviously thinking he could set them up only he didn't know about her engagement to a certain Staff Sergeant.

October 17th 1944.

"Come on Lew" called Rose as she and Dick were trying to wake him up.

"Come on Lew let's move it, they want us back up at Battalion, come on its Sink's orders we've got 10 minutes" said Dick in an agitated voice.

"Alright I'll be down" said Lew making no effort to move.

"Come on, come on let's go" Rose said equally annoyed trying to shake him awake. As she finished trying to shake him to wake him up Dick threw a glass on liquid over Lew's head.

"Ugh, alright I'm up" cried Lew until he realised "Jesus that's my own damn piss for God's sake" he said angrily throwing a pillow at Dick. He soon got ready and joined Dick and Rose in the car.

Full awakened now Lew said "We're the only group who have the Germans on this side of the Rhine, if we'd have taken Hasthorpe and I'm not saying that that would have been easy but we'd be over the river and well supplied with the Krauts on our heels..." Rose didn't pay any attention to the rest of his monologue and it seemed Dick wasn't either. "Hey, are you actually listening to me?" to which Rose replied

"Of course Lew" and batted her eyelashes as she got out of the truck.

"Hanging on every word" smiled Dick as he also climbed out.

Rose, Nixon and Dick all entered the Battalion HQ and Rose asked Heyliger, who stood at the door what was going on to which he replied "Whatever is going on Sink is not happy" he, said worriedly.

"Nixon, Heyliger, Marshall" called Sink as he beckoned them over.

"This is Colonel Dobie of the British Army" he introduced him and then said "Captain Nixon our Battalion S2 and this fellow is Captain Moose Heyliger" to which Dobie laughed at "Also this is second lieutenant Marshall, she is valuable to us so she needs to be here also she just got promoted to first lieutenant" Sink smiled at her as she shook his hand but stayed silent. "Anyway the British lost 8,000 men when Market Garden fell on its ass which is why from Boxtel to Hertogenbosch we are coordinating a rescue operation for the Red Devils who were trapped when Arnhem fell" said Sink before Colonel Dobie started speaking.

"Dutch resistance are harbouring 140 of my chaps here just outside of Gerry town across from the river, they will settle in the woods here tonight" he said in a upper class British accent which made Rose miss her home.

"For easy company, we need to get them back across the Rhine as soon as possible" said Strayer

"140 men?" I asked finally speaking up, shocking Dobie with my accent but he carried on.

"The engineers are supplying six boats, now the rendez-vous point is isolated in Schijndel I swam it myself last night, at approximately 03:00 hours there was a man there with a handheld red torch, that would be a hand held red flashlight" the Colonel finished cheekily, he probably knew that Rose knew.

"Aye, we'll call this thing Operation Pegasus, by second battalion on the spot get it done" Said sink as he went back to the map table.

"Captain Nixon, Lieutenant Rose, we're here to help Colonel Dobie in whatever way we can, you need anything? You come to me" said Strayer to Rose and Nixon harshly, we both agreed, Nixon continued to talk to Dobie as Rose waited for Dick talking to Moose.

"So finally the Princess of the 101st is a Lieutenant" Moose laughed at me

"Wow, we've spoken what two words to one another and you're already poking fun at me!" I said happily.

"If you put it like that Marshall, I'd like to get to know you more know what I mean?" he said with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Rose laughed at his before replying "I'm spoken for but I hope we get on well Captain!" she said this merrily. Dick rejoined Rose as Moose said.

"Don't go doing anything more reckless Marshall we need you here" he said heartily.

Rose and Dick walked out and went back to his office; Rose was currently off duty so Dick invited Rose to read over some stuff for him after finding out that she was a teacher. She was much obliged to do so, she couldn't exactly refuse Dick anything really or for that matter Lewis or Harry either. Rose smiled to herself; Harry wasn't going to be happy that she now outranked him, though she suspected not for long.

Rose and Dick were sat in a nice silence when someone knocked on the door who Dick admitted and it was the one and only Lewis Nixon, he simply held up his flask, it was seemingly empty. "I don't know why I am still doing this" admitted Lew

"What drinking?" asked Rose

"No hiding it in his foot locker" Rose smiled at his sarcastic manner, he was such an easy going bloke, when he was sober "I am a Captain for Christ's sake" he added.

"Well, why don't you just give it up" suggested Dick

"What drinking?"Asked Lewis.

"No hiding it in my foot locker" replied Dick he smiled when he continued "You're a Captain for Pete's sake!"

"Maybe you're right, this may be the perfect place to stop drinking right here on the business of the Allied Advance...cheers" he added as he took a swig of VAT 69. Both Rose and Dick chuckled at his commitment. "Dick you know that's not literature just keep it simple, in the first person, plural say we a lot" he said as he walked out "Oh by the way Princess Guarnere and the lads are looking for you, I think they're missing you" he winked.

"Thanks for the tip" replied Dick sarcastically.

"Excuse me Dick" Rose said as she left to find the lads she had basically lived with for the past three years, she had missed them and with a packed last fortnight and another mission on the way, to say she was stressed was an understatement.


	12. Chapter 12

"I thought been an executive officer was meant to be a fun job" laughed Nixon as he, Moose and Rose jogged up the stairs to Dick's office.

"Who are you?" questioned Moose looking at Dick's orderly.

"Zelinsky Sir" replied the orderly with his nose in the air looking important.

"Who is he?" asked Nixon looking at Dick.

"Zelinsky, my orderly" replied Dick eyeing the three other officers tiredly like Zelinsky was doing his head in or just the papers that kept getting dumped on his desk.

"Oo, rank does have its privileges" whistled Moose chuckling with Rose and Nixon.

"I suppose you do stuff like getting coffee" stated Rose looking rather tired.

"I can do Sir...I mean Ma'am" replied Zelinsky looking at Rose apologetically.

"Coffee black no sugar and two bacon sandwiches" replied Rose trying to diffuse the tension, she felt bad when he actually went off and did it.

"Aww Princess where's my bacon sandwich" sulked Moose with his bottom lip stuck out.

"They're for you two and coffee for Nixon" she replied looking down blushing.

"Give this to Colonel Sink with my compliments" ordered Dick to Rose who handed it to Nixon.

"Wow you've got a lot of stuff it's going to take a while to get through" said Nixon flicking through.

"Yeah it's wanna job?" asked Dick seriously, this man was not built for office work.

"Ha ha, no thanks, there it is, I think somebody wants to be back in charge of Easy Company Moose" said Rose chuckling as hard as it was for Richard Rose did take some pleasure in seeing Dick struggle for once, everything came naturally to him while she had to work s hard to even run as far as the lads.

"Are you three just here to gloat?" asked Dick looking at the three of them rather childishly.

"No just rub it in a little, Moose has got his first mission commanding Easy" said Rose, sobered up from her previous merriment.

"Operation Pegasus is ready to go, though I might give you the heads up" said Moose confidently; Rose thought he was trying to gain Dick's approval but he already had it, Dick said he would have chosen him for the job anyway.

"Yeah Pegasus, yeah, yeah great, have you got a plan for the job?" asked Dick looking to Moose his Captain Head on.

"Yep, we travel with the boats all day, the rest are coming along and the Canadian Engineers, Colonel Dobie knows his stuff" said Moose looking for a second opinion on his plan.

"Do you know how many times you want to cross the river?"

"If there are 140 Brits hiding over there, three trips"

"Time is the key, what time is jump off" asked Dick looking at his watch in a serious manner.

"We reach the far side of the Rhine at zero one hundred"

"Speed is the key, go straight, lead the way" advised Dick.

"Chill Dick, Easy is in good hands" said Nixon getting up from his chair.

"Yeah, they'll hang tough" said Dick, upset he wouldn't be joining Easy for the mission.

"I could say the same to you" said Moose which made Rose smile that any amnesty between them had disappeared.

"Are you sure on the intelligence of this?" asked Dick hushed.

"Well I think it's pretty good" scoffed Nix.

"Are Easy running into a German Company?"

"Why don't we ask Moose when he gets back" said Nixon

"We'll be okay Dick" said Rose.

"Oh and Nix, tell me if Easy run into any trouble wont you?" asked Dick to Lew, worried about them like a mother would.

"Yeah I will, do the same if you run into a bacon sandwich" replied Lewis smiling reassuringly at Richard.

"Easy is in good hands Dick" said Rose smiling.

"Thanks Rose, your confidence in Moose gives me confidence" said Dick as the two left, Rose was glowing from the compliment.

It was a few days after that Pegasus took place; Rose was sharing a boat with Donald Malarkey and Warren Muck, two of the first friend she had made. All the men crouched on the side of the River with bayonets drawn. Rose crept towards Moose awaiting orders.

"The line is secure sir" informed a soldier.

"Go on fall back private" ordered Moose looking around.

"I've got thirty men on the left flank sir" said Welsh popping out of nowhere.

"Go ten yards more to the left Welsh" stated Rose, her head in the battle before Moose could answer, Moose nodded at her leadership.

"So Colonel where are they?" asked Moose looking around slightly agitated at the time the Operation was taking, they were fifteen minutes behind schedule which was enough to worry Moose, the crossing would have to be sped up.

"Over there" he said pointing at his men "Leister" he said at a bush which Rose had spotted to be a man straight away.

"Square" an English voice piped up; thankful they had been rescued from Arnhem.

"Come on out" commanded Dobie with clear affection for the men.

"Welcome back Sir" said Soldier that had replied.

"Glad to be back"

"Heyliger, 506th 101st Airborne"

"Never have I been so glad to see a Yank" said the man

"Marshall also 506th 101st Airborne" said Rose playing up her British accent.

"Come on Colonel" said the man, the colonel informed Rose and Moose that he would be back shortly and ran off with the man. Joe Leibgott ran up beside Rose and Moose.

"Water is all secure sir, ma'am" said Joe

"Well done Joe" smiled Rose

"Thanks ma'am" said Joe as another soldier ran up from out of the line.

"The Yanks are coming spread the word" said Moose.

"You're doing great Moose" teased Rose like it was his first ever mission which Moose replied by squeezing her shoulder running to the boats securing and organising what they could but the Brits were cooperative which helped Rose's mental state quite a lot.

Rose and Moose ran up to Dobie and a few of his commanding officers.

"Captain's Marshall and Heyliger" introduced Dobie.

"God bless you" said the British Captain

"We're ready to go, where are the rest of them?" asked Rose shocking the officers with her accent, she wasn't used to it, she guessed after three years with the Yanks they get used to it but hearing a British accent with the Yanks must be a shock. The Captain nodded at his man and all of a sudden a long line or soldiers came out of the trees as silent as the night.

"And here we all are" said the Captain.

Later that night there was a celebration dedicated to 'Moose Heyliger and the 101st'.

"Moose Heyliger and the 101st have done us a great service" stated the Captain and the men cheered as the few 101st men gathered just raised their bottles "Making it possible for us to return and fight the enemy on another day "To Easy Company and Currahee" shouted the Captain. This time Easy shouted back their motto and the Red Devils lifted their bottles

October 31st 1944, Driel Holland

"Rosie, Rosie" shouted Buck as he tried to find Rose who was lounging with the men "Rose, Moose has been shot friendly fire" he said out of breath as he found her. Rose put down the paper in her hand and looked up.

"Oh my stars and garters is he okay?" she asked "Has he had any morphine?" she said going into survival mode.

"Yeah that's the worst part, Welsh and the Major gave him too many syringes, Roe had a go, I don't know anymore" said Buck as Rose covered her mouth.

"Well shit, is he gonna make it?" she asked worriedly "Sorry you don't know" she paused "I think he will, they could only have given him three at maximum anyway and Moose if you don't mind me saying is a big guy, I think he'll make it" she stated going through it out loud.

"I'll leave you to your nurse thinking" said Buck

It was now December 10th 1944 and Easy Company were now in Mourmelon-le-grand in France under a new commanding officer, Lieutenant Norman Dike. He found Easy Company a bore. Everyday all Easy would do is run drill after drill and it was wearing down on the Company. Lucky for Rose she was in Dick's office with Welsh and Nixon discussing stats.

"It still only has a 65% strike rate and most of them are replacements including the New CO" said Dick running a hand through his hair.

"How is Dike doing?" asked Nixon with a coffee in his hand.

"Oh you know; the guys are already calling him Foxhole Norman"

"Well they are talking about him mid march at the earliest action, we train for three months, we jump into Berlin.

"The only thing holding us together is the Non commissioned officers and some commissioned officers" said Rose hugging her coffee sniffling as she did "Toccoa men" she added taking a long gulp of the coffee.

"Sir there is Sergeant Gaurnere her to see you sir" said Zelinsky.

"Look what the train brought in" said Harry happy to see Guarnere back on his feet.

"Hey Captain" said Bill as he shook the Major's hand.

"Welcome back Bill" replied Dick

"Jesus it's true, I never thought I'd see you behind a desk" said Bill surprised.

"Well I just went AWOL from the hospital to get here, I hope that's not going to cause you a problem" said Guarnere looking at the officers around him, his eyes resting on Rose probably longer than they should.

"Would you care if it did?" asked Rose smiling.

"Not a bit Ma'am" he replied smiling at her making Rose's heart flutter.

"I've got a letter here from Moose for you Major and you Captain" handing the letters to Dick and Rose "He's recovering but it will be a long haul" he said "So I hear there will be a football game, against those jerks from the 502nd can't wait" he added smiling, the gathered officers smiled at his return hoping his appearance may lift Easy spirits further. "I'm going to find some trouble" he winked at Bill sensing the tension in the air.

"You do that" said Nixon

"Bill, no more joy riding" said Dick as he saluted Bill out and Rosie walked towards the door smiling, she had just gotten out when she heard Bill say:

"Have any of you heard of a joint called Lulu's?" asked Bill as an afterthought, all the officers replied that they hadn't. Rose felt like she had been slapped in the face, she had heard of Lulu's from a Nurse on base called Maggie who was angry at one of the other soldiers for going there, she managed to collar Rose for a rant, and Maggie was normally really calm.

Bill walked out of the office to be greeted by someone grabbing his collar, spinning him and then slapping him. "Whoa Rosie what did you do that for?" asked Bill

"Lulu's really?" she asked seemingly accusing him of going there.

"No Rosie you've got it all wrong, I've never been, the thought of you is enough for me" he said hugging her as he did so when they were alone "and guess what I've got he said" producing a ring "my ma sent me it when I was in hospital" he added. Rose slipped it onto her dog chain and looked up at Bill putting her hands on the side of his face. She reached up and locked him a a fierce kiss, they're first. Bill was gobsmacked.

"Thank you and you know what Bill...it doesn't matter" she muttered into his chest, Bill frowned but welcomed the embrace, did she really love him? He asked himself the question.

"Let's go to Paris" said Bill "We'll just hang out with the lads like old times" he said enthusiastically.

"I'm sorry I didn't get a pass Bill but I'll be on base" she said dejectedly "I think we'll be heading out soon" she added wrapping the scarf tighter around her neck, Rose had come down with an awful cold. Rose looked out on the base when she had flashing images of Dukeman lying dead on the floor. The tears then came for everyone she had lost, Dukeman, Hall, Moose, Meehan, and Miller. She wiped them away and cried into Bill's shoulder openly she didn't care who saw, they would understand. "Why did they have to die?" she asked herself mentally. At age twenty one she had seen too much bloodshed and too many people die, she decided she wasn't going to let anybody else die on her watch.

The whole of Easy Company give or take a few were watching a film they had put on to keep them entertained. As per usual Luz was movie talking annoying Joe Toye and Lipton in particular.

"Luz would you shut up" asked Joe irritated.

"We're trying to watch the movie" said an also irritated Lipton.

"I've seen this movie thirteen times" said Luz.

"Well we haven't so shut up" said Toye frowning and slowly getting more irritated.

Luz agreed to keep quiet and them Malarkey ran in shouting "Hey Skip, Skip!" excitedly "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!" he exclaimed reaching in his back pocket.

"Well done, I was at home and then Hitler started this whole thing so now I'm here" said Skip, this earned a snort from Perconte and Rose.

"How did you do?" asked Muck.

"Not so bad" said Malarkey handing Muck a bunch of money "Sixty books a board" he finished.

"Jesus" said Muck a little too loudly which caused a chorus of 'SHUT UP!' from everyone in ten row vicinity. Rose snorted at the lads, they may annoy each other but when this thing is over they aren't going to be able to live without one another, nothing would be the same.

Dick walked in and sat down with a zoned out Buck; he was trying to talk to him but didn't get very far as Buck looked far gone. He tapped him and got his attention but he still seemed off, Rose and Dick had been worried about him for days.

Luz had his penny moment and then two officers marched in turning on the lights causing the crowd to groan.

"Listen up you lot, listen up" shouted Dike to no avail trying to shut them up.

"Oi!" shouted Rose "You may now continue" she said as they all fell silent showing what power she wielded over Easy Company and how much he did not.

"Elements of the first SS Panzer division have broken through the Ardennes Forest; they've sent the 28th Infantry and elements of the fourth, all officers report to respective HQ's and all passes are cancelled" said Dike addressing the Company. Rose left along with the other officers already knowing in her head that Easy will be sent into the thick of it. She left Buck and Dick to talk alone.

Rose had been right, Easy Company had been sent to Bastogne. "Sir, Lieutenant Peacock sir, have you seen Colonel Strayer" asked a Peacock.

"Where's Lieutenant Dike?" asked Dick in reply.

"Dike? I haven't seen Dike, been looking for him all over" replied the Peacock. Peacock then moved onto Buck "How come the fourth army's problem has been dumped on the Airborne?" he asked standing round a fire with him.

"We have no idea sorry" replied Rose. The suddenly the impossible happened, Dike showed up.

"Major Winters, Lieutenant Buck and Lieutenant Peacock" he addressed the four officers completely ignoring Rose.

"Colonel Strayer is still not back from some wedding he is attending in London" complained Dike "Can you believe that? We are here on the front" he added, though nobody cared.

"We've a greater problem Lieutenant Dike" said Dick angry at the man "You are returning to action without proper equipment or winter clothing and not enough ammo, I suggest you take a canvas of that on the whole base, check what materials you have before you leave, K-rations as many as you can scrounge, we don't know if we're going to get resupplied or not" lectured Winters growing increasingly angry with Dike for been an idiot.

"Where do we find ammo?" asked Peacock.

"There is no more ammo share it out between everyone so at least everybody has something" butted in Rose commanding Dike in her authrotive tone.

"Do it yourself" he replied. This was a mistake. Rose flew off her rocker.

"Excuse me Lieutenant Dike, it is yes Captain to you or yes Ma'am, you shall not disrespect me again you insolent man" she bellowed at the officer. He shrank back and ordered Buck and Peacock to find everything then report back. "Oh Lieutenant you can join in the search too just as I am, otherwise you will be spending a lot of time with me" she said as he scuttled off and Rose stormed in the other direction directly into Colonel Sink.

"Oh Captain Marshall, jump in my truck to take you down, you look like you could do with some civilised company" said Sink in a calm voice, he always managed to keep his head.

"Thank you Sir" she replied and was silent for the whole trip, she finally thanked Sink for the ride and went to join the soldiers, and she found Bill and gave his hand a quick squeeze and joined the rest of them.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Tab in general when Babe replied.

"Sure as hell we aint in hell, it's too damn cold" said Babe shivering.

"Man it's freezing out here" said Rose rubbing her hands together "Look at them" said Rose looking at the Ghost Soldiers coming towards them, she ordered that they start asking for supplies anything they could grab and went to find Dick.

"This area is known as Bastogne, crossroads town, seven roads in, seven leading out which makes it ideal for Kraut armour, I want to make sure that the Krauts can't use them roads. We're going to put a perimeter around Bastogne and dig in as tight as a tick, second battalion will be deployed over here these will come in here" he said as Colonel Strayer showed up "First battalion is up north on your left flank, third battalion is in reserve" finished Sink as he drove away.

"Sir, we're short on ammo" said Rose

"How short?" he asked her looking worried.

"Too short" she replied looking to him for advice.

"I don't care if you beg, borrow or steal ammo, just get it" he said as he drove off. Soon after a man came bearing Ammo, Rose left to tell the boys.


	13. Chapter 13

"Doc, Rosie on me" whispered Dick as he heard a sound coming from the woods. "Kommen sie hier, Kommen sie hier, shnell!" he said, his German atrocious, so Rosie took over.

"Shnell! Schnell! Komm her, wir werden nicht schießen, kommen hier auf einmal!" She said loud and clear, Dick thanking her for taking over, he hated showing he wasn't competent at something. He came forward without a fight. Doc, Dick, Rosie and two other Lieutenants surrounded him; Dick searched him and found a bandage which he gave to Doc. Dick ordered for him to be taken back to regiment as a jeep pulled up, the two other Lieutenants followed the orders, Doc and Rose stayed where they were.

It was Colonel Sink and General McAuliffe in the jeep "as you know General McAuliffe is acting division commander" introduced Sink in his North Carolina accent. But the General was not messing about.

"Give it to me straight" he said low and impatiently at Strayer.

"We've been taking ground in one position general and losing it in another" he said his voice hoarse from the cold "now it looks like a standoff we're digging in the edge of the forest" he finished looking for Dick to back him up.

"We're under sporadic artillery fire General, we're taking a lot of hits and we have no aid station, out of food and no winter clothes and no ammo, the line is spread so thin the enemy walks straight in to our CP, we just can't cover the line" he said, he finished as Captain Nixon emerged from under his foxhole.

"Good morning Captain Nixon, anything you want to add for the General?" he asked looking to him to wake up and back up their silent plea for more resources.

"Uh yes sir" he climbed out of his hole quickly and straightened out seeing it was the General "I took a walk on our line at about 03:00 hours, we couldn't find the 501st on our left flank, right with a squad from our second platoon, we've got some considerable gaps in our perimeter" he finished this speech with a hopeless look on his face.

"We've got some gaps on the line, we're spread too damn thin" said Strayer.

"Hold the line Colonel, close the gaps" finished McAuliffe looking around at everyone finally seeing Rose "Lieutenant Marshall, how would you describe the perimeter?" he asked looking for an honest opinion.

"Dire, sir, we have nothing and morale is low, even one pack of cigarettes could boost the whole company's spirit, just seeing something comforting could bring up all the morale, they'd be more eager to be here, freezing their asses off" said Rose sighing finally able to pledge her case to the General. He tossed her his pack of cigarettes and got back in the jeep, Rose smiled, may be this General really cared.

"This god damn fog won't lift anytime soon so you can forget about air cover" he said as he sat down with Colonel Sink in the back "First battalion just set up a coin, we're on the tail, tanks artillery, there is a lot of shit headed this way" he added finally. The men all went off in different directions, and Rose followed Captain Nixon.

"Nix, Nix, I know you just woke up and you're probably still in a morning mood but I need to ask you something" she said pleading, still only a Lieutenant but very firm friends with the two new Captains.

"Hey, Rosie, what's up?" he asked in a sleepy voice.

"Do you have anything spare in your aid kit?" she said wincing slightly.

"Yeah sure, you know you could have just taken it" he said handing over a Syrette of morphine and two bandages. Rose hugged him saying thank you over again and made her way over to a Foxhole. She gave Eugene the bandages she just acquired; she had never seen Doc seem so relieved, only maybe on D Day that he was happy to be alive. She made her way to Spina with Doc.

"Hey Spina what's up?" she asked noticing that him and several other were digging new foxholes.

"Digging in along the line, I guess this is it, what have you got?" he asked the pair of them.

"This bandage from Captain Winters and a Kraut bandage" said Roe "and Lieutenant here managed to get two bandages from Captain Nixon and some morphine" he said smiling, Spina wore the same expression as Roe had when she had given him what she got.

"This is it?" asked Spina who had been given two bandages, his face dropped as they climbed into his foxhole.

"I am sorry, it's all we got" said Rose sighing, she hated seeing them with so little supplies and no aid station, and it worried her. "First Battalion have pulled out of Foy" she said taking a deep breath.

"Then what the hell are we doing sitting here?" said Spina getting more agitated at the news he was receiving.

"This is all I got" said Roe "You got any spare scissors?" said Roe looking at Spin who replied that he hadn't.

"First Sergeant Lipton" called Dike walking over to where the three were sat in the foxhole scrambling with the bandages. "What's this two medics sat in the same foxhole, what's going to happen to us if you get hit huh?" asked Dike been a stupid ass. Lipton managed to save them in time when Rose muttered under her breath.

"Nothing" rolling her eyes, Dike knew full well if they got hit most people would get hit or die, it wasn't unusual in Bastogne.

"First Sergeant where is my Foxhole?" he asked, this vexed Lipton, he thought it was something important.

"Over this way sir" he said pointing in the opposite direction to where Dike was going to walk. This left Rose really angry, if he couldn't find a foxhole in the line, he was never going to spot a sniper, care for his men's safety, he made Rose very mad and irritated and frustrated, one could say that Rose was vexed, so terribly vexed.

A/N: I own nothing you recognise, even the Gladiator reference.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Something to keep you occupied, will update more this summer!- ChampionWarrior**_

"Bill, Bill, did you keep your morphine from Holland?" asked Rose out of breath from running around looking for Morphine.

"No Rosie I'm sorry...hey before you leave I've got to talk to you" he said getting out of the foxhole grabbing onto her arm.

"Is it the leg because I really wish you'd let it heal" she said sternly looking into his eyes.

"Oh to hell with the leg I'm pissing needles" he said frustrated and embarrassed looking down at his boots kicking the snow.

"You need to drink more water darling it's the only way it'll go away" said Rose kindly rubbing his arm with a gloved hand.

"Really? It's pissing that hurts" he said whilst Rose raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly at him "Rosie how cold are you honestly your hands are red raw and blistered what have you been doing?" he asked looking at her finger tips and enclosing them in his own hands.

"It's fine Bill honestly they'll heal, Doc has it worst he can't do his job properly because nobody will give him an goddamn scissors, he hates it when he can't do his job" she said her eyes filling with tears.

"Hey, you're one of the best shots in the Company and morale booster and our little helper" he smiled smiling an reassuring her softly, he looked around quickly before drawing her into a hug, witnessed only by the men unseen by the superior officers.

"Thank you Bill" she said as they sat back down in the foxhole.


	15. Chapter 15

Shells started hitting around the boys "Rosie get down" shouted Bill pulling down Rose onto the floor and into the foxhole with Bill right on top of her his eyes in panic but focused directly into Rose's eyes. The men all around them started to shout, they were much unprepared for this shelling and for many more to come.

"Fuck" said Leibgott loudly; it was common to hear Joe rolling expletives off of his tongue like it was going out of fashion.

"Shit they peppered my helmet" said Hoobler loudly feeling his helmet.

"Get your fuckin heads down" shouted Rose as loud as she could, from what she could hear, the men we doing as she had asked.

"Hey Doc, Doc morphine" said Smokey chucking Doc some morphine he had been unfairly withholding, Doc nodded appreciatively before he was darting off to the call of medic. The shelling had subsided when Malarkey called out.

"That was Penkala, Penk got hit" said Malarkey.

"He'll live, can't be too bad, a clear shout and it was him who shouted for himself" called out Rose deducting making the men more at ease.

"Hey Bill do you mind rolling off of me, I mean the heat's great but you're kind of squishing me" asked Rose trying to roll him off of her. Bill laughed and rolled off her. "Is everybody okay?" shouted Rose once she had sat up. She was greeted with a round of "yes ma'am" from the men to which she smiled. Bill let her stand up and brush the dirt off her hands wincing as she did. Bill looked at her with concern.

"Lieutenant you really should try and keep those hands warm" he said sternly and raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'm trying my best Sergeant but I'm not the only one with cold hands" she said as equally cool and walked off towards the CP.

"Morning Sir" she said as she saluted Dick, he saluted back and smiled at here.

"What can I do for you Lieutenant?" he asked her letting her into the little make shift bunker him and Nixon were sharing. Dick may have been the only man on the line that was still shaving, once or twice she had caught him breaking the ice in the bowl he was using just so he could.

"It's the line sir, we're just spread to damn thin and the boys are getting nervous and as jumpy as hell, do we have any more intelligence on when we'll be moving?" she asked him a slight frown on her face "Dick, these boys aren't going to take it much longer, other companies are experiencing men getting shell shock and trench foot" she explained.

"All we've got to do is hold the line, in a few days I can see us going on a patrol or launching attacks, that's what Sink's indicating, but as for moving out don't get your hopes up, we need to take Foy before anything else can happen" clarified Dick for her the same frown marring his features.

"Alright Sir" she said defeated, it didn't look like they'd be moving out of this frozen hell anytime soon.

"Oh Rosie, Colonel Sink has sent you a message" said Dick as she left, she saluted him and left for her foxhole clutching the piece of paper in her hand worried about the contents.

Rose went and sat down on her own next to a tree shivering, her fingers were shaking so much she dropped the paper a couple of times and each time she cursed, her fingers started to bleed around her nails, she felt tears in her eyes which she wiped away very quickly before someone like Dike caught her. She finally managed to open the letter from Sink; it wasn't his large print most likely his orderly's writing the message contained the following.

" _Lieutenant R. E. Marshall, information has reached me that your sister Annabel Harriet Marshall of the 801_ _st_ _Air Evacuation Squadron have being KIA on the 12_ _th_ _December 1944."_ Rosie dropped the letter with the tears flowing more and more with each sob. She buried her head in her knees and let the tears flow she "Oh Annie whatever shall we do with you" she said as somebody approached her.

"Lieutenant, fuck, Lieutenant I've been looking for you for ages" said the out of breath voice of Joseph Leibgott who now had his hands on his knees after saluting her.

"Fuck Rosie what the fuck happened?" he asked out of breath his language no better than ever.

"Annie and Holly" she said.

"Who are Annie and Holly, you've never mentioned them, oh your sisters you had a picture of them in Toccoa" he said remembering.

"Yeah, they were both flight nurses, they were twins. Annie was in the 801st Air Evacuation Squadron and Holly is in the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Squadron" she said slowly pulling the picture out of her pocket showing him the two girls.

"Christ Lieutenant, if you don't mind me saying they're both stunning" he said admiring them, they were both wearing evening gowns next to her parents "which is which?" he said.

"The one on the left is Annie, she was a dancer for a ballet company when she was younger, she had lovely red hair, she was always so funny" said Rose now walking next to Leibgott to find the line.

"Awe, well at least she's not suffering anymore" said Leibgott patting Rose's back.

"Thanks Joe" she said, her face still had evidence of tears and she was worried about Dike seeing her like this. She made her way back to the line and kept her head down, she had soup thrust upon her which helped regain feelings in her fingers.


	16. Chapter 16

Rose made her way back towards the men who were generally cheerful; some looked up and acknowledged her presence but nobody really noticing her tear stained face. Joe left her shaking his head at why the unshakeable Lieutenant had spilled out her private life to him when they had never really talked as such. They knew each other and E was a tight unit but she wasn't close to him like she was Bill or Malarkey.

"Lieutenant" called over Bill who was stood up next to a tree looking out over the men. She smiled and made her way over to him. His brown eyes looked at her with warmth and admiration but also concern as she got closer towards him, he noticed the redness of her cheeks, redder than normal anyway, and she also had puffy eyes and damp cheeks. "What's up Rosie?" he whispered to her out of the vicinity of Dike who was on to her with his ever unhelpful eyes. Rose shook her head and looked out on the men; she wasn't going to let these men go the same way she had to lose Annie.

Rose finally spoke up "I never spoke about them much before" she began taking a deep breath before she couldn't and let out another load of sobs quietly but enough to attract the attention of their CO.

"Lieutenant Marshall" he said storming over, the men were too bust giggling and talking to notice. "Why are you crying?" he asked her leaning over here like he was some sort of superior.

"She'll be fine sir" said Bill not wanting to aggravate her cries even more but if he asked again there would be nothing he could do to help her.

"I want to know why she is crying?" he demanded looking at her shaking form. Bill looked out to the side and breathed a sigh of relief; as much as he was jealous of the man he was so very grateful for Captain Nixon in that instant.

"Ah Lieutenant there is a phone call for you at regiment" he said with his wide brown eyes, Dike marched off in the opposite direction thankful to be getting out of the snow, only this time it was a hoax.

"Thank you sir" said Bill quietly, he wasn't normally this quiet but his growing concern for Rosie was becoming more present. Bill being an inferior rank to Rose could do nothing to stop her from crying or even comfort her but the handsome and rich and intelligent officer could, something that grated on him dearly.

"Rose, come on sit up that's it" said Nixon rubbing her back inspecting her face "can you explain what's wrong Rose" he asked her softly looking at her now bringing her in closer. Bill's eyes filled with jealousy when she pulled herself closer to him. Bill wanted to leave he didn't like it but he had to know what was wrong instead he pretended not to listen and lean against a tree.

"Annie" she whispered to him shaking like a leaf in the wind, the name came from her mouth a few more times until it clicked with Nixon, and this is the reason why he was the intelligence officer.

"Your sister right?" he said, she'd spoken to him about it while she was in hospital and she'd got a letter from her.

"Yeah" she said her sobs now empty she had no more tears left "she was a flight nurse, 801st Air Evacuation Squadron" she said, she didn't have to say anymore about it he knew what had happened she's been killed, but most likely from fever or infection, it was rare for a plane to go down, he knew she had a twin sister, whenever Rose did open up about them she always spoke highly of the sisters she had back at home in Georgia.

"I'm sorry Rose" she said, whatever the news was going to be Bill did not expect it to be that he looked down at her with full sympathy, Nixon stood her up and squeezed her hand, he knew what losing someone was like, he'd lost his grandfather early on in his life but he'd raised him like a son and it had hit him hard. Bill put a hand in her hand and just held it.

"You had two sisters, what's the other one Poppy?" he asked her she shook her head, Nixon looked all out of options.

"It's Holly" spoke up Bill, he remembered finding the picture on D-Day and then putting it back in her coat pocket, she'd never even suspected that she had lost it. "Annie was the dancer?" he asked even though he knew the answer, like Nix he knew it was best to keep talking when all you wanted to do was break down, he'd lost Henry and he remembered how he felt, like nobody care but he knew Rose did, she was there for him, he was going to be there for her.

"Yeah, Atlanta Ballet, she was one of the best, he debut was coming up when war declared though she was 16 at the time, she was going to turn 21 in January" sighed Rose, Bill looked up at her.

"Does anyone in your family have any flaws?" he asked in good humour to her which made her smile briefly.

"I'm the talentless one, Holly went to Georgia State University, she was studying English and Annie was a dancer, then I became a school teaching assistant by a favour, they labelled me first aider so I had an official title" she said sadly "always patching up this one girl, Eve, she was always playing rough with the boys, boy she did make my day, she was funny too, and cute she was a top student and then she would go knee sliding along the gravel" smiled Rose thinking back to her days in Atlanta.

"Sounds like a certain someone I know" said Lewis Nixon.


	17. Chapter 17

Earlier that day Spina and Babe had gone to find third battalion for more medical supplies but had been unsuccessful but had managed a run in with some Germans. Something that Babe was now relaying to Malarkey, Julian, Skip and Penkala. Rose was stood next to Bill watching the men; they had their shoulders touching and hands brushing, a subtle sign of affection between the two.

"Should have shot Hinkle in the ass" spoke up Malarkey with his arms under his armpits and knees up to his chin, Muck and Malarkey could bounce off each other like billy oh or like all get out if you're an American and this was no exception.

"Hinkle nearly shot him in the ass" giggled Skip, yes giggled like a school girl. Rose observed this behaviour with great fondness, she knew it was the laughs in the hard times that would be remembered most and when the war finally ended this is what would hit her in waves of nostalgia, this lead her to think what could possibly make her remember this after the war, could it be the snow? No not snow it was too generic to this episode of the war, bad soup? Yes, that could trigger a memory such as this, right there and then Rose made a mall face of disgust, she thought she could never forget the taste of those rancid ass beans they'd been eating for the last month. Joe Domingus passed her another round of those beans and whatever else was in it, it was the closest thing to hot they had out there and at best it was Luke warm.

"These smell like my armpit" said Malarkey in disgust, in a way Rose and Bill had to agree it did smell like their armpit and right now Rose was guessing her armpits did not smell too feminine, as feminine as armpits get anyway.

"At least your armpit is warm" said Skip flapping about the piece of food in his hand. He was looking at it in disgust and confusion but right now Rose had stopped listening and was tucking into her food like an animal. She was digging in very eagerly much to the amusement of Bill.

"You hungry?" he asked with a smile on his face and eyebrows raised, Rose nodded at him with a slight sheepish smile, Bill was grateful for the distraction her hunger and food was giving her, it was tearing him up to see her so depressed after finding the news about Annie, he supposed though that he was the same with Henry, she couldn't be blamed for being sad she was the older sister to twins, he felt sorry for Hollie, she'd lost not only her sister but her twin, he couldn't imagine it. He could tell that Rose was thinking very hard about her memories with her sister. She looked like she wanted to share it with someone; she was glancing up at Bill and smiling slightly, that smile made him want to know all the more.

"Tell me something about her" he asked her softly, she smiled a bright smile at him and thought for a moment.

"Okay, so Annie was 7 and I was 10 and she was riding her horse Tatiana, I was riding Oberon, Hollie was riding Cobweb, mother was riding Moth and father was riding Hermia, this is the last few months before we moved to Georgia, so we were all galloping down the field at full pace, we all had ponies but any pony is spawn of the blinking devil anyway I was in front on Oberon, he's a huge Shire cross Thoroughbred and a gentle giant, I don't know if any of the horses are still alive Annie had never beaten me on Tatiana, never and all of a sudden I hear Annie screaming with fear or delight I'll never know because Tatiana with every step was getting faster and faster and throwing up her back end every so often, my mother and father tried to race after her but Moth and Hermia might be the slowest horses on earth and we finally pulled she got off and started dancing that she'd finally beaten me and went round the whole village the next day bragging, Oberon was a legend and everyone was so happy for this seven year old riding a far too big horse finally getting one over her older sister, I'll never forget it, we sold the horses upon coming here, I still have the pictures of all the horses at home, God I loved that horse and we sold him for a hefty price as we did all the horses, I miss riding I really do, back in Aldbourne my grandparents have a horse for the plough but he's not a riding horse" finished Rose, Bill smiled at her, the memory didn't seem like much but he knew it meant to most to her about her sister. "Annie was a good rider but an even better dancer, when we got to the states she had to choose between the two and she chose dance which took her all the way to the start of the war nine years later, she was 16 when the war started" finished Rose smiling at Bill who was still looking at her affectionately.

Late on in the night Alley and Leibgott started singing, Bill was on patrol in the area but had no idea that the singing was actually reaching where Buck and Rose were watching the line when the pair of them came running up, Rose's hair all messy underneath her too big helmet and Buck looking even paler than ever. "Who the hell is that?" asked Rose out of breath looking at Bill.

"Alley and Liebgott" replied Bill immediately sensing the officers' concern.

"Shut them up, do it now" said Buck a little impatiently at Bill who tottered off still with a limp from his leg injury which made Rose shake her head discreetly muttering how stubborn he was underneath her breath. Buck was still looking round but eventually made her way back to the patrol point with Buck.

During the night a red flare went up but Rose and the rest of the men were too smart to fall for that now and crouched lower into their foxholes because gunfire was sure to follow and without fail there was some, she was lucky they learnt early on that flares were bad news; the lectures at Toccoa had stuck with the men like glue. Although they'd had a flare the night had been pretty quiet but that wouldn't last until morning.


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: You might not really care about this but I got my results on the 25th and I could not have been happier, I got an A* in Physical Education, despite popular belief it's really hard, I got a C in French with 201...it's 210 for a B :(, and the biggest shock was a B in Religious Studies, I had only ever got E's and F's in mock exams and then I got a B. Hope you like the chapter!**

It was the next morning and Easy Company had been in a slightly disturbed but overall peaceful slumber and had woken up to have some more horrid broth, the morning was ruined by the screams for "MEDIC!" Rose closed her eyes as she recognized the voice to belong to Skinny; he'd been sharing a foxhole with Perconte and it would seem that Perconte had been panicking, the men in the line of fire were fine but as soon as it got to trying to help a man with a mangled leg they suddenly turned out to be the biggest chickens on the earth, to be honest Rose thought that they were not much better with a splinter. Thank the Lords above for gifting Easy Company for the most talented Medic they could have hoped for, Doc Eugene Roe. He was already on the case and Skinny was in a jeep ready for Bastogne as soon as he had called, the only problem was that he was running out of supplies. They had agreed that Roe would take all the medical supplies off of Rose because he had more of an idea, sticking a plaster on and wrapping bandages was one thing but sorting out bullet wounds was where Doc Roe worked his magic. Rose came out of her Foxhole near the front of the line to see that Skinny was the only casualty of that attack, thank God.

After the shells had hit there was a service by Father Malone, he knew that there was a Protestant and the rest Catholics. All the men from the states were Catholic, Rose didn't know why but they just were and they, at the start, had grumblings about her not being a Catholic, she always managed to gently remind them that she was still a Christian, they didn't really care but they accepted her nonetheless and other religions within the Battalion, when it came down to it God couldn't stop a bullet but the man or woman beside you could dive in front of it or push you out of the way. They had all said their prayers quietly in a service on that Sunday morning, the Germans never bombed at Church time, 10-11 in the morning, she guessed that they had their service then to, a bitter reminder that the Germans were not all that different.

"That's it guys if we die now we're going to die in a state of grace" said Muck cheerfully to the rest of the men even earning a chuckle from Father Malone, out of all the companies he said that he found Easy to be the most humoured bunch of the lot, they after all had the likes of Luz, Skip, Malarkey and so on, even Smokey could be funny when he wanted to be.

"Right, we got a patrol, Battalion staff want us to go Kraut hunting" said Johnny to the men of the assembled first platoon. They were all grumbling about Lieutenant Dike but Luz was the loudest who was complaining to Bull, Christenson and Rose.

"That man couldn't find a snowball in a blizzard" said Luz swinging his gun of his shoulder. Bull and Pat nodded to Lux in agreement to his statement.

"The other night he was demanding to know where his foxhole was, why can't he do it himself, task managing prick, God I wish Dick was back in charge" she muttered so only the four could hear, what she just said spoke volumes to the men, one of their own officers was talking shit, one that could be kicked out at any moment for anything was risking her job through frustration.

"Preach" agreed Pat with her who's normally tanned complexion was snow white, whiter than the rest of the men and it was starting worry Rose, she didn't say anything, they didn't need him to be worried before going hunting. Rose moved over to where Peacock and Martin were stood when Julian came up to her.

"Can I be lead scout?" asked Julian like a young schoolboy, but coming to think of it he probably was a school boy.

"Back in line Private" said Rose tiredly, maybe she was prejudiced but she'd only ever trust a Toccoa man with something like that, it made her feel guilty but these men knew their stuff.

"Let's move it out" said Peacock giving a scowl to Rose which she rolled her eyes at quite deliberately and noticeably, the officer was by the books and the books said Rose shouldn't be there, so that was his belief, the men knew this they didn't like him and they would be glad to see him out of charge from first platoon, as much as the boys hated admitting Rose was right they wanted her back in charge. They had Lieutenant Matheson as their first platoon commander but he was made regimental S-4 and Harry Welsh and Rosemary Marshall had gained the platoon.

"Tactical column gentlemen" said Johnny in a loud voice, Martin was admired as the Staff Sergeant, he was one of the best and despite being the same height as Rose he could throw some punches when he needed. He told Doc to stay back and keep his 'ass outta trouble'.

First Platoon made their way through the branches to the German camp where they like Easy were ready for a fight. They creeped round the trees and fallen logs with the two Lieutenants in charge were at the back as per usual. Up front she could see Johnny and Julian with Pat and Bull trailing behind. They were crawling and then the German's opened fire and caught Julia straight in the neck.

"Merde" cried out Rose as she ran up to find Pat and Bull who were coming closer to the front when Johnny shouted for them.

"BULL! CHRISTENSON! LIEUTENANT!" he called out to the three of them, Rose made a quick observation that Peacock was still at the back. The rest of first platoon came running up behind them with their rifles already perched for action. Babe runs up to Johnny without pulling his gun.

"Sir we've got to get him, I can get him Sergeant, stay still Julian, don't move" cried Babe looking at him but as soon as he made any attempt to reach him the Germans shot at his arm and had to keep going backwards. Rose quickly reloaded her gun and kept firing towards the Germans but the fire from the other side was not lessening.

"SUPRESSING FIRE!" called out Bull to the men who redirected their fire over to where Babe was trying to reach Julian but it was doing no good, they weren't progressing, Julian was dying and they were wasting their already sparse ammunition. "WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE JOHNNY!" called Bull from behind the log; Johnny and Bull were now both crouched behind the log.

"COVERING FIRE BOYS!" said Rose in her girly like shout which was loud enough for the Germans to momentarily stop their fire, she used it to her advantage and got so close to Julian at a quick sprint before the firing started again and she had to dive back towards the men, a bullet grazed her shoulder as she did so.

"MERDE!" said Rose once again using her French to curse in, the bullet had grazed her shoulder and had torn a rip in her jacket and now she could feel the cold getting onto her skin, a feeling she was not comfortable with but for the graze itself she had no qualms about it getting some cold on it. There wasn't much blood but it was staining her shirt.

"PULL BACK WE GOTTA PULL BACK!" shouted Moore across to Johnny and seeing Rose looking at her shoulder, it made him slightly panic and picked up his firing pace. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire but she couldn't complain, men were losing limbs and getting psychological effects of the shelling, she counted herself lucky. The men finally finished firing and ordered to move back, Rose looked down in embarrassment she should have ordered them back but nobody seemed to care. Another man got hit but he was dead before anybody could get to him, it was a replacement nobody knew. As they were running back they bumped into Lieutenant Nixon.

"MARTIN, MARSHALL" called the Captain at the top of his voice, he did not seem happy that the patrol had been unsuccessful but he didn't look surprised just confused.

"Sir" they both panted to him with a sense of urgency.

"What is going on?" he asked, he had to know why they had pulled back it wasn't like Johnny to just let them fail at something.

"They got Julian" said Johnny still out of breath but the young Private Heffron was not giving up on saving Julian, Nixon's eyes were darting all over the platoon.

"He's still alive!" screamed Babe in his high pitched voice but nobody was paying him any attention.

"We don't know that" shouted an irritated Johnny, Babe was becoming irrational and he wasn't aware of his surroundings, it was too dangerous for another man to go and get hit.

"We got to get him Sir" said Babe his voice breaking and his eyes and head darting from left to right quickly.

"They hit our line" said Johnny to Nixon who was starting to piece together what had happened to the platoon on the patrol, damn he thought, Sink isn't going to be happy. Babe shouted again but Nixon had already made his decision.

"NO! Fall back" said Nixon to the men who were slow to move so he reinforced his order "Come on Martin, fall back!" he said, he looked at Peacock and he looked at Rose, he could see her adrenaline was pumping through her but then he noticed the rip in her shoulder.

"Marshall" said Nixon as they finally hit the CP and the men returned to the foxholes. "Marshall get that shoulder seen to" he said before he left her to go and see Doc Roe, he was sat in his foxhole when she found him, he looked up at her with his brown eyes full of confusion, he'd heard about Julian but no other casualties.

"What can I do for you Lieutenant?" he asked her, she pointed up at her shoulder, he understood and cleared away the little blood that was there and poured antiseptic on to it careful not to use too much in case a bigger wound got infected, he knew that Rose would understand. "Right Lieutenant if you start burning up or feel any pain you gotta come 'nd tell me straight away, we don't need an officer off da front know, it'd be bad for da men's spirits" he said to her, she nodded as she thanked him and wandered back to her shared foxhole with Bill where he was sat like the rest of the men, huddled up and with his armpits covering his hands. Rose sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder and fell into deep thought, had Annie died like that, bleeding with nobody to help her? Rose wished she'd put Julian out of his misery, the poor boy was left for the Germans.

The afternoon passed pretty uneventfully for Easy and Rose managed to get some shut eye, the men and the officers didn't care that she had fallen asleep, in fact she was sure someone had laid a blanket over her but when she woke up she found it was Donald Malarkey's scarf draped on her exposed shoulder and across her body, when she woke up she smiled at the gesture and gave it back to him to get some soup. When she arrived at the designated communal eating area she was called over by Johnny and Dick.

"We could get to him sir" said Johnny quietly "we tried, Babe tried, Rosie tried, hell she got grazed but we couldn't get to him" he said again solemnly thinking back to the confusion and hurt on the young boys face and the sight of all the blood coming out of his neck, one bullet and it made all of it bleed out everywhere. Dick nodded in understanding unlike when Dike had found out. Apparently Dike had just said thanks for telling him and walked off like it was nothing and then muttered something about damn replacements, when she was told this by Lipton Rose looked on in shock, he was a replacement too, a replacement for one of the best officers in the 506th, Easy cursed the boy who shot Fred Heyliger.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Right, I went a read through everything, I called Rose, 'Captain Marshall' in chapter 12, she's not she's a Lieutenant so sorry for the confusion, I know it confused me too :/ Does anybody know if Kinesiology Tape is any good? Please review! (You know the story not the tape!)**

"God damn it woman are you going to sleep or not?" asked Bill in their shared foxhole with his strong Philly accent. He looked at her as she shook her head, no Rosemary Elaine Marshall was going to find no sleep, and espeacially not after the disaster the Battalion Staff was calling a patrol.

"I don't...I don't think I can" she said in a quiet voice with many gaps in between, she had dark circles under her eyes and the bags under them were getting bigger as the days went on, she turned into Bill who in turn put his arm around her, she snuggled herself into him and he gently stroked her hair, he knew she wanted to scream and cry and shoot something but she had no energy for any of that.

"What's bothering you darling?" he whispered to her turning his face to see her, he couldn't see her as she buried her face in deeper.

"That could have been you" she whispered clinging to him, Rose wasn't normally too affectionate with him, yes she'd hug him and kiss him but she never looked for support anywhere but she had her ways with dealing with grief as did he, he just wished he could walk in a room and know what she was thinking.

"I promise you I am not going anywhere" he said, he regretted it when he said he knew he shouldn't promise her that "I will try not to just for you but I need you to be safe" he said sincerely as he rested his head on top of hers.

"I know you're trying to make me feel better" she said, not believing what he said but no arguing against it either, he lifted her chin with his gloved hands to make her look him in the eye, her eyes were closing ever so slightly, Bill smiled.

"Of course I am" he said and leant down so his lips were hovering over hers, he gently laid a kiss on her lips to which she responded slowly, he wrapped his arms around her small frame, he was no giant but she was tiny and the lack of food wasn't helping her, he ended up cocooning her and she wrapped herself around him, she pulled away and kissed his jaw line and buried her face in the crook of his neck, he kissed the top of her head and smiled into her hair as she started slipping into a sleep, she was exhausted but didn't want to sleep...she was afraid...afraid of what her imagination could cook up for her to cry about. The night after that was peaceful and the pair managed their best night sleep in a while.

Morning broke through the spindly Bastogne tree's which awoke the men in Easy Company slowly and the normal buzz of activity started filling the area they were occupying when they could hear planes, the day was clearer and the noise they were omitting was that of a trusty C-47, the men went outside and celebrated their arms waving up into the air but soon enough the men were getting shot at and ducked for cover then started firing back.

"Cease Fire God Damn it" shouted Lipton who had not pulled out his gun, the look of confusion spread all across all of the men's faces.

"But Lip I don't understand, it was our own planes" Rose said trying to figure it out, it clicked with both Lipton and her at the same time.

"Shh...C47s...Resupplying" Lipton said as Rose smiled as did Eugene, he was getting a little low on supplies and the lack of food was diminishing the men's mental and physical health.

"It's a drop" shouted Rose to the men who all gathered around her smiling at her, she herself was beaming.

"So, Gene you're going to Bastogne no question, take Floyd, Leibgott, Babe, Popeye and Skinny with you and grab whatever you can, Lipton you do your usual rounds, Buck inform CP what is happening Captain Winters will want to know" organised Rose, the men scurried off to where she told them to go in a jeep that had just arrived.

"Marshall!" barked Dike as he came wandering out of his foxhole probably wondering what the commotion was about, he had indeed managed to see Rose dictating orders to the men, Peacock and Shames were looking at her with dead eyes and smirking to themselves "since when did you dictate orders in my company?" he asked his voice booming.

"Since you were not present this morning when we've just had a drop on Bastogne and the men came for orders, I handed them out since I am an Officer" said Rose with her chin in the air and her eyes locked on to Dike's unblinking.

"It will not happen again" said Dike to her "you will leave the orders to the men miss" he said sneering.

"I'm a Lieutenant and I demand to be treated as such" she said as he turned away, it made him stop in his tracks and turn to face her again with his lips sealed in a thin line.

"You do not demand anything from your CO, this will be reported mark my words girl" he spat and stormed off in the direction of Battalion, Rose stood their biting her lip worried what battalion would say, she knew he was a favourite up there and she definitely divided the Brass on their opinions.

Rose went and sat with the men waiting for them to come back with supplies, she sat with Bill and Toye who were bantering between themselves when she walked up she plastered an obviously fake smile on her face "Well boys why don't you take a guess at who is getting reported?" she fake laughed letting herself drop to the floor heavily.

"No shit, what did you do?" asked Toye who was still smiling weirdly at her face which was quite obviously false.

"It's not even bad, stupid ass hole, he said I should leave giving orders to the men then he called me Miss, I'm a Lieutenant not a Miss, if I can't order anybody about I may as well be a NCO or Private, which by the looks of it I'm going to end up being" she said bitterly, Dike was grating on her nerves by simply not being there never mind when he was present.

"Fuck him Rose, Winters and Sink won't let you go never mind McAuliffe.


	20. Chapter 20

"Lieutenant Marshall" called over Dick in the direction of where Toye, Guarnere and Rose were sitting keeping warm huddled together whilst watching the line, Bill was snoozing as he had watch in the evening but Toye and Rose were sat there just looking and muttering to one another, lucky for Rose she had yet to see Dike.

"Oh my stars and garters" she mumbled before getting up to salute Dick who was now in front of her, she snapped to attention and he saluted her "what can I do for you Captain?" she asked him her voice shaking since she already knew.

"Morning Rosemary, I have come here because there has been an official reprimand against you by Lieutenant Dike" said Dick looking at her evenly and without emotion.

"Sir?" she asked, she knew that he wasn't quite done with her yet.

"You are to join me at CP until it's been decided what will happen to you, but it looks like you'll be pulled off the line and put at battalion" said Dick seeing her face drop.

"I'm leaving the men but I'm not losing my bars?" asked Rose her voice breaking slightly; she could tell that Toye was trying hard to make it look like he wasn't listening.

"Yes, but no doubt you'll be one of the first to hear any news if Sink decides he wants you, I know he has from the start, and they're still thinking about your bars...come on" he said to her but she stopped and turned round to look at Toye.

"Tell him" she ordered to Toye who nodded at her with a grim look, he wasn't sure how his best friend would react.

Rose followed Dick all the way up to CP where Nixon was looking over some maps with a deep frown with a cup of what seemed to be coffee that had gone cold. He looked up at the two of them with a weary smile and had like everybody else a scruff forming on his jaw but he was bluebeard and needed to shave more than most, something he never did.

"Rose" he said dropping the map and looking towards them, he cleared a space on the make shift seat himself and Dick had made and gestured for her to sit down.

"Nixon" she said and she let a single tear down her face.

"Hey, hey what's wrong?" asked Nixon putting an arm on her shoulder.

"N-N-Nothing" she stuttered out "he's...he's so in-insensitive and he-he doesn't have a b-bloody clue" she managed to choke out slowly, Nixon was being very patient with her to say the least and was looking at Dick worriedly as he shrugged "first Annie...and now this...I've worked so hard to make it up here and now because I want to be treated l-like my rank says I should... I-I-I...I get taken from my men" she said trying very hard not to let any tears flow, she'd been a crying mess recently and it was starting to annoy her, she didn't like crying, it made her feel like she was the centre of attention and being coddled, she didn't want to be coddled.

"Shh, shh, it's alright now, you're not going to be kicked out of the Army, you're not going to lose the men, they'll keep in touch, they'll never forget you Rosie" said Nixon rubbing circles on her back.

"Thank you Nixon" she smiled up at him, successful that she didn't let any tears fall.


	21. Chapter 21

_**AN: A lot of swearing in this one sorry, it's been a while and it's moving slowly but hopefully this will finish Bastogne, I've added a bit and changed it!**_

Rose spent the night in the CP with Dick and Lew, the three huddled very closely together, Rose didn't get much sleep thinking about Buck, Babe and Bill watching the line, she wondered how he'd taken the news. Bill had always liked having Rosie close to him so he could keep an eye on her.

 _Earlier that Night..._

" _Bill get up it's_ your _watch" said Toye to his sleeping friend who had been shivering and snoring in his sleep, Bill woke up rather quickly and looked around him; there was no sign of Rosie._

" _Hey Joe, where is she?" he asked confused, she'd probably have been needed at CP she was after all an original Toccoa man and she knew the company better than anyone, if anyone could judge their performance it was her._

" _You aint gonna like this" said Joe huffing, Bill glared at him "alright I'll tell you, she was pulled off by the Captain earlier today and she's being at CP all day, they're moving her off the line probably to work with Sink" he said, he looked like he had more to say but couldn't say it, he couldn't bring himself to say it._

" _And?" asked Bill fully awake now clenching his fists slightly looking tense._

" _Jeese Bill don't shoot the messenger...they don't know if they're taking her bars, she'll probably go down to a Sergeant or something I don't know" he mumbled but it was clear enough to Bill, she was being snatched out of his view, how on earth would he protect her now._

" _Shit, that's fuckin low the prick, she asked to be treated correctly and that son of a bitch does that, I can't fuckin believe it doesn't he know what's happened?" vented Bill mainly too himself "maybe it is a good thing though, her hands are so wrecked I'm surprised she can use them, her face is all chapped up, she's freezing and goddamn she's getting skinny" he said his eyes watering but quickly drying again._

" _I know, I know, she's struggling I get that but fuck sake she's worked so hard to gain the approval of the brass and they're throwing it away on the words of a fuckin imbecile" said Joe back in his usual gruff manner which had only being worsened by the conditions of Bastogne._

" _Fuck this I've got watch" said Bill storming off managing to compose himself before he reached Buck and Babe._

" _Bugger! I forgot Rose is in a foxhole alone tonight Bill's got watch" said Luz frantically as he was closing his eyes "I'll go find her" he announced leaving the warmth of the body heat surrounding him. His heavy steps left clear markings in the snow as he trudged towards her shared foxhole only to find it empty. Luz quickly made his way back over to where the boys were. "Where the fuck is she?" he asked slightly panicked looking at everyone's faces and loud enough for surrounding foxholes to hear them._

" _She's at CP" said Toye plainly causing confusion amongst the men of Easy._

" _What the fuck is she doing up there?" asked Malarkey probably one of the closest to Rose in the Company._

" _She had a run in with the CO, Brass are deciding if she's gonna lose the bars and Captain Winters thinks that Sink will take her" explained Toye briefly, this was possibly the best reason to hate Dike right now, even though many of the boys thinking about weren't actually close to her or talked to her often enough they still lost a good officer for no reason._

" _Son of a mother fucking bitch" said Luz, he wasn't normally one to swear out of combat but right now he was a little angry, this was echoed by the men around him._

" _Come on guys we got to rest up" said Talbert hushing them, they all started grumbling but soon they were all in a very cold and tight slumber."_

23rd December 1944, Ardennes Forest

The boys of Easy were making an attack on the edge of the woods overlooking Foy, Rose could hear the MGs ringing and the buzz of battle which was the men shouts and orders being given, now Rose truly understood what Dick meant by the fact that he had to watch Easy go without him and he could only listen to the reports, it was like hearing an account of how well Ginger Rodgers performed but you could never really get the same feeling, this however was much more serious and much less glamorous. Lewis could see how agitated she was getting; Colonel Sink was going to see her in a few minutes when he arrived and for that she was entirely inconsolable when it came down to telling her it won't be as bad as she imagines.

Rose climbed out of the CP in front of Colonel Sink and saluted him sharply and to her surprise she saw the regimental Doc, Doc Kemp next to him. "Morning Lieutenant" said Sink gravely making Rose swallow nervously.

"Good morning Sir" she replied, her voice unusually high and her eyes darting in between the two officers in front of her. Sink tried to smile but he was just too cold.

"I hate this business, we've got stuff to be doing and plans to be making for the goddamn assault of Foy and you decide to be disrespectful" he said seriously making her swallow again and go red in the cheeks, she never thought about it that way, then in a turn of events he cracked a smile at her, a small one, he was still cold stiff but it was there nonetheless. "I've been pressured by my higher ups to stop you from stopping Dike do his job correctly because you're too much of a distraction" he said waiting for a response which he realised she wasn't going to give, the girl in front of him was not the fiery he'd met in Toccoa. "He said that you demanded something of him, I wasn't given what it was, enlighten me Marshall" said Sink harshly.

"I didn't demand him to do anything that prevents him from doing his job, I admit it was selfish on my part but I asked to be called Lieutenant treated as such, I'm not a Miss when I'm out here sir" said Rose looking forwards at Sink and Kemp with a hint of red climbing up her neck.

"That's not selfish but he says you're a distraction and distractions get people killed" said Sink looking at her, she could tell he didn't want to.

"Don't you think after two years with these men my disappearance will be a distraction sir" she said slightly venomously and with disgust, she he didn't want to do but she was in Dick's company now, he was the Captain surely he was the one that had the final say.

"My decision is final Lieutenant" he said heatedly and gestured for her to follow, she turned around and gave Dick a salute and handshake "don't worry we'll never forget you Rose" he said to her as her eyes turned red but she had no more tears. "Come on Marshall" said the Colonel and she did so with her gun resting on her knees and her helmet firmly on her head. Doc Kemp was washing out her hands and bandaging them but Rose was completely numb right now she wasn't protecting the boys.

When they got to the regimental HQ Rose stepped out and was ushered in by Colonel Sink, as they were walking he was telling her about her new duties "So Marshall you'll be taking documents to wherever I need them, getting me coffee, checking our supplies and typing up for me understood?" he asked her.

"Yes, sir" they got into the room with all the other orderlies in it and they were all female some giggling at her and other looking at her with disgust "what shall I do with my gun?" she asked making some of the younger ones gasp and Kemp chuckle which he disguised with a cough.

"You'll put it under your desk for now and any other weapons in the drawer, there is a new uniform in the back for you" said Sink "that'll be all" then the pair exchanged salutes.

"Kemp can I ask you a favour, when I'm changed can you get these to the line for the men?" she asked the Doctor who shook his head.

"No, hopefully you'll need them again, I'm saying Lieutenant that you won't be here forever, Dike will go soon" he said and walked off in the opposite direction, it just made it worse knowing she might go back, it made this all feel very grim and she felt bad that she was indoors and relatively warm.

Rose sat down on the furthest desk as it wasn't occupied by anyone and sat down propping up her gun next to the desk and then standing up. First she reached down into her boot and pulled out the knife Nixon had given her before the jump to Holland, the other knife came out of her other boot from what her Grandpa had given her in England and finally the one strapped to her arm hidden in the cloth came out from Buck who'd given it to her in Normandy. The other women all stopped what they were doing; the cockiest one had the audacity to speak up.

"Why have you got them, they're not standard issue and you don't get close enough to the Germans to stab them and beside you have a bayonet" she said as if she knew what the line and combat was like.

"A) Private it's none of your fuckin business b) My superior Officers and my friends gave them to me c)tell that to Bull who was almost captured in Holland and d) have you ever been on the line or shot a gun, you can't shoot straight with a bloody bayonet on and who said they were for stabbing, hedges need cutting, rope needs cutting, your chute gets stuck and that is your lot" said before walking out of the room. She heard them talking when she was getting changed in the next room.

"She's rude she can't waltz in here and talk down to us" said the same woman; she looked to be Rose's age as well.

"She's a first Lieutenant though she's got to have earned it" said another thoughtfully.

"Yeah by spreading her legs, how many do you think she's had _it_ with?" said the rude one.

"I don't know but she's a Brit, they're not known for their brains" giggled another, they all joined in, there had been no paperwork come through all day and this was the best gossip they'd had.

Rose could hear them as she folded her uniform. She wasn't going to let them get to her like she let Dike get to her. Her old uniform smelt fusty and was cold but she didn't want it washing, she didn't know why but she was scared someone would find it and then she'd never see it again. The uniform they gave her was that off a female field nurse, the pants and the jacket, the shirt, the whole shebang but they'd made sure it had the insignia on that she wore on her jackets on, she did look a bit odd in a nurse's uniform with infantry insignia but she couldn't care less, she attached her bars to the collars and walked back catching her reflection in a window, her face was dry and bruised, there was blood in her hair line her hair had grown, she hadn't paid much attention but when she joined it reached her shoulders, now it was half way down her back and was frizzy, it greatly contrasted the clean clothes she was wearing, they fitted her and she thanked the stars for that, the male clothing rather squished her up as it had no room for female assets.

Rose walked back in the room and she sat down again with nothing to do she took to trying to comb her hair out with her fingers. "Don't you think this is dishonourable to a soldier like yourself" said the same woman as before, Rose managed a fake sweet smile.

"I'm an officer, and you're right it is a disgrace for an officer such as I to be pushed around by the brass and do such menial work" she said, they took offence to that, she had called them menial but nobody was about to call her out on it "who the fuck are you anyway?" she asked, she'd been around Liebgott too much and Bill for that matter.

"Private Margery King" she said proudly to Rose, she suspected that more was coming "my brother is the commanding officer of Item company" she said.

"Can't say I've met him...oh wait that's Henry, I know him" said Rose blandly, he wasn't an outstanding person but he was courteous enough, they all turned their focus to the door as Colonel Sink walked in Rose saluted first and the rest followed.

"Hope these lot are nice enough Marshall but I need your bars" he said bluntly, Rose unclipped them almost automatically and handed them over, it was when they dropped into her hands that she felt inadequate and small, she could see King smirking at her.

"You're now a Staff Sergeant, here you go" he said to her and handed her the chevrons.

"Sir, I was a staff sergeant before Normandy, I've done so much more and you know it, you commissioned me for a reason" she said in a quiet voice that only Sink could hear.

"Well one day you might get them back" he said in a hushed tone, she saluted and so did he. She could see the others smirking at her, they threw her a sewing kit.

"Well best get sewing Staff" they said to her and went back to talking amongst themselves.

Rose took of her jacket and placed the chevrons on where she needed them but her hands were shaking, it wasn't a nervous shake or a scared shake it looked like the shake her Grandpa had. She picked up the needled and thread but she couldn't thread the needle, she was shaking a little too much and she was having a hard time moving her fingers from the bandages wrapped around her hands. The smallest woman in the room walked over to her and offered her a hand.

"Do you want any help Staff?" she asked her with a very sympathetic face.

"I'll manage Corporal but thank you anyway" replied Rose, as much as she needed help she wasn't about to accept it from a woman she was trying to earn the respect of, her pleasant tone seemed to catch the girl off guard, she expected that she thought that she was like all the other soldiers, gruff and impolite all the time. A common misconception thought Rose, she'd never say anything ill of her boys, she was very biased but she did think that she could take any of them to meet her grandmother and she'd love them.

"Sure thing, but if you need anything or have questions just ask...and oh don't let Margery get to you, she's always been a pain" she said as she walked off. Rose spent a good quarter of an hour trying to thread the needle becoming thoroughly upset and she was ready to throw it out of the window. When she finally started sewing the same girl came and sat by her with a supply list for Battalion. Rose threw her a quick smile.

After thirty minutes and twenty needle pricks later she was finally able to say she'd sewn them on. "They're perfect, who taught you to sew?" asked the corporal.

"I didn't learn I got on with it my first CO was a stickler for detail, in training I'm not sure I ever got a weekend pass" chuckled Rose to the girl with a slight smile on her face.

"Sobel?" asked the Corporal smiling knowingly.

"Yeah how did you know?" asked Rose with an impressed frown.

"Everyone knows about Easy Company staff, they're sort of legends to be fair, we've always admired you, through the papers and battle reports" said the Corporal.

"Really?" asked Rose putting her jacket on again, she could imagine that she was a sight for sore eyes but this girl seemed to be impressed to be honest.

"Oh yeah, you've acted as a medic the best you could, you've got two combat jumps, you survived Sobel and you're a good shot...not to mention the Bazooka" she smiled.

"Me and Harry, I mean Lieutenant Welsh" she corrected herself chuckling "how come you're in the Army then?" asked Rose.

"I couldn't let eight sisters join as nurses now could I? I had no nurse training but they did, I enlisted in '43 when I turned eighteen they put me in England but Hester wanted me up here" she said.

"Oh I'm surprised I didn't recognise you, Clarence was always on about you, I saw you a few times in France, you're Ruth Hart?" said Rose berating herself but relieved to find someone who knew at least an acquaintance.

"That's me" chuckled Ruth "well I'll see you around I'll run this through, you might want to wash your face, the end bed is yours and there is a tap, bowl and mirror in the bathroom" she added and walked out. Rose felt guilty using the amenities that the men couldn't but she knew if her boys were there they would want her to take full advantage.

Rose sat there for a few hours every now and then filling out a form or writing something up but at the moment there was nothing for her to do.

She slowly got up and carried her weapons to where the beds were, if you could call them beds, they looked to be as comfortable as the bunks on the Samaria were but right now she couldn't care less, anything was better than snow. She dumped them down and found the tap and bowl, she managed to scrub the blood off with her finger nails as not to wet the bandages that were wrapped around her hands and pulled her hair up in the best way that she could by plaiting it and then making two buns at the bottom of her neck. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, her jaw and cheek bones had become more defined with the weight loss and her neck seemed thinner, her hair was lip despite being thick, her face was red and bruised and her lips were chapping... _not exactly the sweetheart of the 101_ _st_ _any more_ thought Rose cynically, she'd hit a rock bottom, her tears started to leak out but she'd be damned if any of the other heard her, she wiped away the tears furiously and walked back in, there was a ration of food on her bed with a note saying "Eat", she also noticed a chocolate bar was underneath the bowl which made her smile.

The next day she had heard a report that Smokey had taken a hit and was paralysed but there had been no other casualties, Rose knew it must only be getting worse on the line if Toccoa men were being taken out at the rate they were, they were the people that really needed to survive. She'd been worried sick whilst she was typing up Sink's report from Dick and had managed to make only a few grammatical errors even though she wasn't sure any of them would notice.

Christmas eve came with being woken up at half past five just like every morning then getting a quick breakfast but today she was surprised to see Colonel Sink walk into the room looking chirpy everybody stood to attention but he put them all at ease. "Marshall, I've got something to tell the Easy Boys thought you might like to join me" he said and walked out, she took the last mouthful of her breakfast and followed him out, a smile gracing her features, she grabbed her jacket and her gloves and followed him out, the air was brisk but she was used to it, if it had been any of the others she was sure they'd just stay there.

They got to the line and the boys were all there with their bowls in their hands joking and laughing with one another. Malarkey's head popped up and his mouth opened in a wide smile "Holy shit, it's Rosie!" he called as she loaded out and Sink went to talk to Dick for a minute. The boys all crushed her in a hug and Bill managed to kiss her cheek undetected, she smiled up at them all brightly.

"Whoa hang on a second, those are chevrons, officers don't wear chevrons?" said Skip confused.

"Nope but Staff Sergeants do" replied Rose shrugging.

"Bastards, but I'm sure as soon as Dike is gone you'll be back with us" said Luz smiling.

"Thanks Luz" she smiled "I've made a friend though, like an actual female friend, Corporal Hart, she's a top girl" said Rose.

"Hang in there you've made a friend?! How?" joked Malarkey with her, they were all relieved to see her happy mood.

"I have no idea but she was the one who used to file all of Easy's paperwork, she works for Hester" she replied, the boys around her nodded in agreement, they had all liked Hester very much.

"We're all sitting down to a Christmas eve dinner or turkey and hooch back at the division CP, but I'd be damned if I don't like Joe Domingus' rancid ass beans better" he said making the company chuckle, they seemed to have their spirits raised after the drop the other day "hello Easy Company." The Company replied with a hello sir.

"Men, General McAuliffe wishes us all a merry Christmas, what's merry about all this you ask? Just this, we've stopped cold everything that's been thrown at us from the North, East, South and West. Now, two days ago the German Commander demanded our honourable surrender to save the USA encircled troops from total annihilation...The German Commander received the following reply "to the German Commander: Nuts!" said making Easy bark out with laughter. "We're giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present, an being privileged to take part in this gallant fear of arms, we truly are making ourselves a Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas to you all and God bless you" he finished leaving Easy in a perfect state of happiness.

"Nuts" the men were crying out laughing to themselves, Sink shook his head affectionately the boisterous young lads receiving the news.

"Marshall" barked out Sink, Rose nodded solemnly to him and smiled sadly at the men.

"Merry Christmas boys" she said smiling as best she could.

"Merry Christmas Princess!" they all chorused at her making her blush, it had been a while since they had called her that.

Later that night there was news that Harry Welsh had been hit and without a second thought on her soldier instincts she was running to the hospital.


	22. Chapter 22

"Bloody hell Harry, I leave for three god damn days and one of you ends up in here" she said as the Nurses in Bastogne got to work. She had her arms folded across her chest looking at him for a reply but he gave none, he looked slightly ashamed of himself.

"We should have told you Rose...I mean...Sink had a talk with Dick, Dick didn't want you to go home...well he did but not like that, it was a dishonourable discharge or a demotion and lack of privileges" said Harry wincing as he hit his wound when he moved.

"What? Dick did that? I knew I liked him for a reason" she said putting her foot up against the wall and leaning her head back.

"Yeah he did, he's quite fond of you, so is Nix though, all of us are, you're looking better all cleaned up in a uniform that fits and you're talking" said Harry smiling up at her.

"Thank you Harry, I just wish this uniform had fewer chevrons on it and more bars" she said to him shrugging her shoulders in a non committal way, her demotion had been the worst blow to her though, half of the men were angry about it too, they weren't acting to full standards for Dike since she had left but he still looked smug with himself, he thought that he had subdued their personality and what makes them Easy, the truth was he'd just made them angrier than they had ever been. "I'll see you around Harry, you'll be as right as nine pence soon you'll see" said Rose as she left.

"Yeah, see you around Rosie" said Harry dejectedly, he'd never felt so alone than in that moment, in a hospital where the men were dying daily and the nurses didn't speak English but he shrugged it off, he thought that if he was lonely, how did Rose feel, she was truly alone now, she'd been surrounded by the officers and soldiers of Easy for almost two years and she was still putting up with the Brass undermining her, she'd been stripped of her rank and put behind a desk, he thought that when times got tough all he had to do was remember it wasn't going to last forever.

Rose walked back to her billet in a sombre mood to be greeted by a very spacey looking Colonel. "Staff" he said as she saluted him which he returned, she looked vulnerable shivering in the cold, her face looking visibly stretched and her hair looking lip, grime on her hands and tattered boots. "Marshall...I guess you now know what my alternative was" he said looking anywhere but Rose "we didn't want to take you off the line...we had to...Easy wants you back with them, we want you back with Easy, they're preparing to attack Foy...I thought you should know" he said quietly before walking off and before Rose could salute him. She stared after him for a while until a breeze hit her and she entered the billet.

The rest of the girls were fast asleep in their small fragile beds and quilts wrapped around them. Rose despite been humiliated, belittled and stripped of her rank could not be more thankful for the bed she was going to be in tonight and the walls around her protecting her from the breeze. She was grateful for the food in her stomach and she was grateful that today Easy hadn't lost anybody. Her sleep that night was restless but she did get some shut eye, she knew that the next morning that it would be the same chattering of the girls in front of her about anything under the sun, usually the line, it took all of her might to not butt into their conversation, it irked Rose that they talked like they knew what was going on but the reports in front of her made it seem real. Dike hadn't changed one bit, in the reports she hadn't been typing up his name but she'd frequently used _"Sergeant J. Martin, First Sergeant C. Lipton and Lieutenant L. Compton"_. They were the best front runners for Easy, it gave her hope that Dike wouldn't be around to let men get killed, she was sure that the NCO's and Buck would look after them.

The next morning when she woke up she felt terribly tired but knew the routine and Sink wanted his morning coffee, some days she wanted to throw the coffee away and see how he survived like the men did but then she thought how hard he fought to get where he is and how many battles and offensives he'd seen she take extra care when she thought of that. She took it through to the main office and put it on his desk. With a note of what needed typing and where it had to go, she was typing away and organising which was her favourite job in the world. She sometimes looked at the knives in her draw and looked at her gun in the corner, thinking about the men lives they'd saved, it had saved her platoon's lives countless times and it had killed many men, when given time to reflect it made her, like any another soldier, wonder how many people would lose a husband, a brother or a father because they'd pulled a trigger, but the German's were killing her men and they were trying to kill her.

Around lunch time a jeep came into Bastogne, Rose had spotted it out of the window, and in it was Doc Roe and another man. It concerned Rose and made her frown, that was another Easy man on the injured bench. She kept looking out of the window and saw them tug a body from the back of the jeep and she wasn't sure who it was so she stepped closer to the window and recognised it as the shape of Donald Hoobler. The most problematic thing with this scene was that they were tugging him about and he wasn't moving. A hand flew to her mouth in horror as the other hand grasped her stomach for the twisting feeling in her gut. Donald Hoobler was dead, one of the most cheerful and kind people she had ever met, was snatched away from his company. The most saddening part was that he'd never see the world that he was fighting for and he'd never see it get any better. A tear welled up in her eye which she quickly wiped away before anybody could see it or admit to herself that she was crying and in fact waiting for the next body to arrive.

She sat back at her desk, her work finished, unlike the others she managed to get through the pile of work quickly rather than natter the whole way through it. Her head was in her hands and her legs were hung limply off of her chair, she silently sobbed for Hoobler. The afternoon went slowly and whilst Rose sat there thinking herself into a bad mood, thinking she'd let the Company down, that they blamed her for getting taken away; two officers were having a very interesting conversation.

"You know what Dike's problem is, don't you?" said Dick hugging his coffee close to him thanking God for the steam that it produced to keep him warmers...or at least his chin and finger tips.

"Hmm?" replied Nixon looking up at Dick from the paperwork he was pouring over, even on the front line they had paperwork.

"He's just another one of those arrogant, rich jerks from Yale" said Dick in reply making Nixon smile a little bit.

"Oh God not another one of those" he said in an over dramatic voice but the humour was lost on Dick.

"Division's not going to let me replace him because I have a bad feeling about him...even if they did who would I put in his place?" he asked himself and Nixon before continuing "Shames? He's seen far too many war movies; he thinks he has to shout all of the time, Peacock? God bless him, nobody tries harder but he's not cut out to take men into combat. I'm sure as hell not going to make him CO when I don't want him as platoon leader" said Dick and now Nixon was paying full attention.

"What about Compton?" he asked as if it was simple, he may not have got on with Buck but he knew how valuable he was.

"He is the only real choice, Buck is a real combat leader, but you know, I want Easy to have at least one experienced platoon leader...not that it matters because I can't get rid of Dike" he finished off dejectedly, it killed him to see his Company in such a mess.

"Well, we all know who you'd like to have running Easy, trouble is, it's not your job anymore Dick" said Nixon shrugging, it was true Dick still wanted to lead the men but division would never let him. "You gotta find somebody" he said at last.

"It's a shame that Rose left" said Dick after a pause which stopped Nixon in his tracks. "It's a shame, if we still had her then we'd be able to make Buck CO and have an experienced Platoon leader" he said looking down "but she's the same rank as Guarnere and Martin now, she'd be leading a squad not a platoon although I do not doubt that the men would listen to her over Peacock any day" he said.

"Yeah a real shame...I miss having her here, despite being covered in blood all the time she really was the light and pride of Easy, I know all of these men want to take her home to meet their mothers" he said.

"Shame it's Guarnere that's doing that" replied Dick "oh come on Nix them too are closer than anybody in the company but I know that Rose is a stickler for the rules" he added as Nixon left.


	23. Chapter 23

It displeased Rose to be sat waiting for word from the Colonel or a word from any of Easy and the next few days were getting tough, the snow was setting in more than before and the attack on Foy was looming ever closer. She'd heard that Nixon had been chosen to go back to the States on a thirty day furlough but they'd siphoned off the honour to Peacock and today a camera crew were coming to the front and the good Colonel himself was going to be there to make sure everyman was smiling for the camera.

Rose, Sink and Lorraine had made their way down without a word being said between them. As soon as she stepped out of the jeep she was greeted by Easy Company's big smiles and hugs and of course the camera man was filming the interaction. He was grinning like a bobcat as he filmed her something she did not enjoy.

"Excuse me but get that bloody thing out of my face" she said her hands on her hips and her eyes on fire, despite how she thought she was doing the days off the line had rekindled the spirit within her.

"Oh come on, the golden girl of America, the front line girl, any wartime romance?" he suggested to her and with that she took one step closer.

"Up until recently I was a Lieutenant of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry and the 101st Airborne Division and I will not be degraded in such a manner, and currently serving as a non commissioned officer you owe me some respect" she said venomously much to the amusement of the man behind the camera, seeing his face smirking she stormed in the other direction.

"Oh come on why you get demoted?" he asked her shouting which made her stop and in the most uncouth manner she shouted.

"BECAUSE I WASN'T BORN WITH A PENIS!" and with that she greeted Nixon who was laughing his head off at her reaction despite the truth of her statement.

"Okay Rose, I'll give that one to you that was funny" he said making her break out into a smile alongside him before throwing her arms around his neck.

"I've missed you Lew" she whispered in his ear before clutching on to him tighter which he responded to.

"I've missed you too" he whispered back, she could see the Colonel turning a blind eye to it for which he was thankful for, he knew that he wanted Rose reinstated back in the Company and back as an Officer, she'd started out as a lowly Private and now she earned her right to a battlefield commission despite being born a woman. Lew let go of her and by which time Bill and Dick had found her, she gave Dick a brief handshake and smile.

"Hey" said Bill almost shyly as he looked at her smile at him, he'd never seen her look so kind and wonderful, yes she was thin and dirty and tired but she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"Hi...how are things?" she asked him awkwardly before barrelling into him and burying her face into his neck which he pulled her closer and subtly kissed her on the head which sent shivers down her spine and not from the cold. He let her go and looked at her and smiled, his cold lips stretched and his cheeks reddened by the cold.

"I almost forgot how gorgeous you are when your clean" he said to her which made them both chuckle for a while before it became serious again, Rose had a million things running through her mind to tell him when she was typing but when it came down to seeing him she couldn't find the words.

"You do know that now we are the same rank it's technically allowed for us to be a thing" she said to him picking off the dry skin at the end of her finger.

"Umm...yeah...I mean but because your circumstances are a little less than ordinary that's not a great idea" he said to her, his face became apologetic when he saw her hurt face. "I didn't mean it like that Rose, the best thing for Easy is for you to get back here, having a relationship with one of the men is not going to help...and I like having you to myself" he said at the end, it didn't do much to comfort her but she was pulled out of her thoughts when Joe Toye came and clapped Bill on the shoulder. Bill was delighted to have his best friend back.

"Marshall" called Sink as she looked at the men gathering around, Sink was with Dick and Lewis discussing something, but nowhere to be seen was Dike.

"Yes Sir?" she asked.

"You seen Dike?" asked Dick before Sink could get to it, she just looked at him with her eyebrows raised answering the question, Dick sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. Rose and Sink left again; it occurred to Rose that normally a typist would not accompany their senior going to the line but then she understood Sink was trying to help her.

Later that night Easy's position became under heavy artillery and for the first time in ages Rose knelt down and prayed much to the amusement of the girls and in particular Margery King. "Jesus...she needs to get over it, she's not a part of that company anymore and they're not her men" said Margery loudly.

"No, I won't have it, that was a low blow, they may not be here men anymore but they stand alone together, once a member of Easy they're always a member of Easy, they are also her friends and they could be dying right now, you blooming insensitive cow" said Ruth to her as Rose finished her pray and stood in the door frame waiting for the jeeps to arrive. Not many minutes later they did arrive and to Rose's horror it was Bill and Joe.

"Bill! Joe!" she shouted as she sprinted across the road of Bastogne to reach them and started helping them to get them out. "Jesus Christ Bill" she hissed as she saw his leg hanging off and the pain was evident on his face.

"It's not that bad Rosie" he said to her trying to smile but wincing as he did.

"NOT THAT BAD! You're about to lose half a leg and that is if you are lucky!" she said loudly and harshly to him, but by now he was going into shock. The stretcher bearers carried him and Rose kept him awake by running her hands through his hair soothing him. "You're going to be alright Bill you'll see, you're going to be just fine, we'll get you fixed up" she repeated to him in various forms but by now her eyes were openly spilling tears but making no sound, she let him go as they put him on a bed. She stood in the relatively quiet ward staring as they got to work on his leg; she knew she wasn't going to see him again before they shipped him out. She quickly found herself some paper.

"Bill,

When the War is over I'll see you again, I'll see you in England, I love you dearly, the day that Victory is declared I'll send you some money to get over to England and I'll see you in Aldbourne, give my love to your family that I am dying to meet

Much Love, REM."


	24. Chapter 24

The following day Muck and Penkala had been killed and there were no bodies to bury or mourn over, it saddened Rose beyond tears and into anger. The Toccoa men were dropping like flies and it was now more than ever we needed them, they'd lost Guarnere and Toye, Muck and Penkala (as a good as Toccoa) and they'd lost Buck the officer that had turned up on D-Day and taken to the company, that was five good men, in a week, Rose could only wonder who was next. Hashey had been hit in the shoulder and to his poor luck it wasn't enough to be sent off the line and in the current mood Rose couldn't be sure what was worse.

The next morning came the assault on Foy and Rose had never seen Dick and Lew look so worried. She avoided all contact with Dike and stuck close to Lew. She could see Dick briefing Dike and she could tell that it was going to go horribly wrong "look at him Captain, he's not taking in a bloody word he's saying" spat Rose giving glares to Dike, Nixon shrugged knowing there was nothing to be done about it. Nixon noticed that she was wearing her BDU's under the pretence her others went missing, and what worried him more was that Sink had turned a blind eye; the worst thing though was the hidden rifle and helmet in the back of the jeep. The men all took off and Rose had slight hope that Dike would get them all in cover and together moving, that was until Dike stopped everybody and Foley went around the side. Rose wanted to scream and shout. Dike finally stopped next to a trailer with a bunch of men in his face and wasn't responding to Dick on the radio. The men started moving and then started getting shot. Rose stepped backwards and grabbed her helmet and rifle. Dick started to run out only to be shouted at by Sink until he sent Speirs out to relieve Dike only Rose went with him, various shouts of Rose and Marshall were called by the men but Rose wasn't about to turn her back on her company now. Speirs only nodded to her understanding exactly what she was doing.

When they reached Lipton the situation was worse than Rose could imagine "Sir, most of the company is spread out here. 1st Platoon tried and end-around. They're stretched out and pinned out by a sniper, I believe he's in the building with the caved roof" breathed Lipton and was given a formulated answer by Speirs.

"Alright, I want mortars and grenade launchers to that building until it's gone, when it's gone I want first platoon to go straight in, forget going around, everyone on me, and Rose get your squad you're on prisoners, go in after 1st enter" said Speirs as everyone nodded to him. Rose shouted for a squad, not technically hers but she was sure that Bull wasn't going to chow her out. The squad came to her and she explained.

"Stick to the CO, when the buildings gone we go in, we want prisoners, let's light them up boys" ordered Rose, still talking like a Lieutenant. Bull smiled at her affectionately.

"By is it good to have you back" he grinned and followed her as she started running, it was almost comical seeing Bull dwarf Rose but there was no time for laughter in Foy. Gun shots were fired and fewer men were getting killed, Martin, Rose, Hashey and Bull all took cove behind a wall aiming for the Germans. First Platoon managed to break through as Rose joined Luz and Lipton. Speirs was informed that I Company were over the wall and they needed to make contact, he agreed immediately and in a split second he was running through German fire to climb over all wall. The firing had stopped around them, the Germans and Easy Company had no idea what just happened. Then the firing started again but by this time he was coming back through the fire. "RON!" screamed Rose as he was getting closer to been hit but all he did was grin at her when he got back for a brief moment "crazy ass son of a bitch" muttered Rose making Luz snort. "Alright, Third Squad on me" shouted Rose as they entered the buildings taking prisoners. It did not take long and with the help of first and second squad they managed to round up 100 prisoners. They finally came into the clearing where Shifty had taken out a sniper and Perconte had been hit in the ass, it was the first time all the men knew she was there.

"Well there she is boys" said Johnny with a smile on his face much like the rest of the Company although their laughter was soon cut short by the harsh voice of Major Winters.

"Sergeant Marshall" called Dick and Rose's face fell, she hadn't realised how bad this was going to affect her in the heat of the moment, she saluted him and he did back "I have heard you have shown exceptional leadership today, well done" he said "furthermore, I managed to lose your demotion papers and you're still a second lieutenant in the US Airborne" he winked at her.

"Oh my gosh, Dick are you serious?" she asked him, he nodded and pinned her lieutenant bars on to her as she glowed; he gave her a hug in congratulations and whispered in her ear.

"Well done, this was Sink's idea and your new CO is Speirs" he said as she smiled, only to receive a crushing hug from Lewis.

"Well, well, well Marshall, please do not ever scare me like that again!" he exclaimed to her but grinning like a bob cat.

"I promise" she laughed, been back with the men had been better for her than been off the line; everyone knew she was in a constant state of worry waiting for the men and it was clear to see why over the past few days. To Rose's relief Dike was been sent away to do paperwork rather than lead men.

Easy Company spent the night in the convent with a choir although Rose decided to stay out of the church for as long as possible much to the confusion of her CO. "Marshall" said Speirs in curt tone. "Why aren't you in the church, its warm" he said to her.

"No, Sir, I feel as if I go in there I'll be judged, I've done so much wrong it wouldn't be right" said Rose kicking the snow with her feet.

"Rose, listen to me, you're a good person, one of the best, we need you fighting ready, I need you to take charge of first platoon for me, those boys are the bees knees as you would say" he said to her looking her in the eye as he talked "I need you here, Easy needs you here" he said to her and the stalked off confusing Rose.


	25. Chapter 25

Some years later...

It was late summer of 1945 when I arrived back at the states after the war. I had seen some horrible sights. The concentration camp had been the worse, I'd been deployed to the women's camp with Doc Kemp and I will never forget the horror of been passed malnourished babies from dying babies, they'd been weary of us but they trusted me a woman, one of their own, to take care of their most prized possessions. The biggest scare was when Lewis lost his battle with alcohol one night after he jumped from a plane and was the only one who survived, he scared me that night. The most shocking was when a replacement shot Charles Grant in the head, I'm not inclined to be violent anymore since that incident, and I punched that replacement enough to live my life in peace.

I did get to Aldbourne and I did meet Bill back in England, we stayed with my Grandparents who were now frail and old. Arriving back at New York had been the best thing that I could have ever experienced seeing most of my boys arrive home but also wistfully thinking of those who hadn't and you could tell the others felt it too. Since arriving back in the US I've been bombarded with offers of interviews but I refuse to make a profit of my experiences, nobody needed to know. I never went back to Atlanta but I did see Holly again, my parents made it explicitly clear that they never wanted to see me again. Holly and I grieved for Annie properly for a few weeks but as Annie would want us to we carried on like everybody else.

I liked Philadelphia much more than I expected and Bill's family were very pleased to meet me. His mother doted upon me after hearing many tales from Bill about me, most I'm sure were exaggerated. I found work as a secretary at a local contracting firm but I longed to be out helping, the war had changed me and I couldn't sit on my bottom for the rest of my life. Bill and I looked for work elsewhere, he got a job as a light labourer and nobody bothered him about his leg. People could see that he was wounded but as I later found out I was mentally wounded but in time I would heal. I did odd jobs for people but being a housewife was proving to be nice, especially with a farm to manage, I started to love my life and I was happy for the first time in years. It was in winter 1949 that Bill proposed again properly on December 17th, the day we'd entered Bastogne five years earlier, we married in January.

Of course my answer had not changed, I'd grown to love Bill more and more, on home turf with no regulations it was like meeting him again and I'm glad to say that I met him. In 1950 I gave birth to my first daughter, I loved her unconditionally but she died at age two from Cystic Fibrosis and it was heart breaking to lose something I had begun to cherish. In the aftermath of that I began to wonder if my life was worth living, everything I seemed to touch had trouble or was hurt until Bill being the man he is suggested we adopted. In 1952 we adopted a young baby boy who we named George Warren Alex Guarnere-Marshall. And to this day he is my world along with his younger brother Frank Lewis Guarnere-Marshall.

In early 2000 Bill and I were approached by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to give information about the war. It was my first time speaking about the war publically but I was happy to do it and the actors that played Bill and I were far too kind, and the men who played my good friends Buck, Lew and Dick. To play Bill they chose Frank John Hughes and he is wonderful and myself I was played by the far too good looking Jessica Biel.

Rosemary Elaine Marshall

A summary of my diary from 1945-2001

Rose died on the 7th April 2006 aged 83 surrounded by her family and friends from the war and later life


End file.
